Abduction
by Tessa Honeybee
Summary: Wheelie is in way over his head in trouble this time. And he's sure he's on his own in getting out of it. After all, nobody's ever come back to save a drone before. Edited and extended!
1. Wheelie's Abduction

As the Decepticons' presence on Earth became more and more clear to the public, people were in a panic. Some abandoned their homes to find a safe haven from whatever was destroying their world. But that did them little good. By January of 2011, the Decepticons' wrath had had spread to every continent of the world. In this time of mass destruction, Autobots had become extremely exhausted in their constant battles against the uprising Decepticons. But no Autobot ever complained or questioned their leader, despite how rundown on luck they felt. The Autobots and NEST soldiers kept their heads up and vowed to endure till the end, no matter what the circumstances. One human in particular, did not intend on enduring the Decepticons much longer. He designed a plan, gathered some followers, set up their base of operations, and within a month or two they officially posed as an organization and a threat. A threat to any Cybertronian that rolled the streets, surfed the seas, or soared the skies. Regardless of Autobot or Decepticon faction, MONEE as they were called (Mission Of Nonbiological Extraterrestrial Extermination), were set to rid the Earth of its invaders. Even if it meant taking out Earth's protectors as well.

Sam Witwicky's apartment was surprisingly quiet when Sam came home. It'd been a long day of job interview after job interview. With little success, Sam decided to quit for the day and head home. As was said before, it was quiet when Sam stepped inside the door. He hadn't heard the glorious sound of silence in so long. Since Wheelie invited himself into Sam's apartment, it'd been nothing but noise, noise, noise! Let's just say Wheelie was having a little difficulty adjusting to Sam's rules. Every time Sam turned around, he had another reason to scold Wheelie. "Wheelie, that's not a toy." "Wheelie that door is closed for a reason!" "You're not allowed in that room or that room. You just lost your privileges to that room!" "Wheelie! Don't touch that!" And the list continues. Sometimes Wheelie's curiosity and attitude combined was enough to make Sam want to scream. So to come home to a silent house was quite a surprise for Sam. He enjoyed the peace and quiet for about two minutes, and then he came to a conclusion. This wasn't right. Something had to be wrong. Sam ran a quick search over the apartment. Not a single sign of Wheelie anywhere. He considered consulting Bumblebee about it and maybe going to look for the lost drone. But with Sam's tired body begging him for rest, Sam shrugged and went straight for bed. 'Wheelie'll turn up in the morning.' He thought.

A couple blocks away, Wheelie was anything but lost. While taking a joy ride along the sidewalk, Wheelie paid close attention to street signs and landmarks. Not that he planned on going anywhere in particular. Just so he'd know the way back from his adventure. Wheelie was only out to see the sights and to stretch his wheels out. Sam kept him cooped up all day and he'd been looking forward to his escape all night. Its no wonder he got into trouble back at the apartment. He was so anxious to get outside that he was literally knawing at the door hinges to get out. Wheelie wondered though, if Sam would ever let him leave the house again after this. 'Oh, who cares what he thinks? Primus knows I don't! His house? His rules? Fine! My night! My freedom! My rules!' Wheelie thought. Just as he said this, he noticed the sun had completely set, and now he didn't even have his shadow to keep him company. For the slightest moment he almost felt a little scared. Wheelie shook the feeling off, but he still had another bad feeling nagging at him. Something inside him told him to turn around.

Without warning, a metal cage dropped down on Wheelie and a hand locked him in! Even with advanced Cybertronian reflexes, Wheelie could only react fast enough to duck his head! The sudden movement was too swift for him to process! The latch on the cage was firmly locked before Wheelie could even wonder what was happening to him. He didn't even have time to scream. Wheelie was thrown to the back of the cage and had his face down. When his processor confirmed he'd been trapped, he set into full alert panic mode! What being could capture him that fast? It couldn't have been a Decepticon, or else he would have detected their spark signature. Wheelie looked up and out through the metal bars. Who he saw as his captors made him fall to his knees. He felt such a shock of fear, confusion, and betrayal that he could hardly will himself to stand up! But when anger set in, he forced himself to stand and pound his fist against the bars. "HEY! Let me out of this!" Wheelie demanded. "You got the wrong mech! I ain't a Decepticon!" He tried to reason, but that only earned him light chuckling from the captors. That's what got to Wheelie. If there was one thing he couldn't tolerate, it was being laughed at. And his captors laughing at him, while he was restricted inside a cage, did not make him happy one bit! "YOU GLITCHING AFT! YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY? JUST WAIT TILL I GET OUTTA HERE AND SLAG YOU OFFLINE! THEN TELL ME WHO'LL BE LAUGHING?" Wheelie screamed. After that he went totally berserk! He banged on the cage like a wild animal, screamed and hollered!

His captors grew quickly annoyed with all the commotion Wheelie was making. Another hand reached inside the cage. (Wheelie was so tempted to bite it!) With unimaginable speed, the hand grabbed Wheelie by the scruff bar on his neck and hoisted him up. No sooner had he left the cage, had he been thrown into another one. The forceful toss caused him to slam his head against the cage wall. Before the cage door was shut and locked, a hand holding a small human device thrusted the device to Wheelie's chest! It sent electrical pulses painfully surging through Wheelie's tiny and fragile body! "AHHHHHHHHHHH!" Wheelie screamed. He was even tempted to cry. Anything to make the pain stop! But Wheelie couldn't cry now. He was at the mercy of these sentient beings who had no intention of showing him any sympathy. His best chance of staying online was to show as little weakness as possible. Though that was becoming a challenge. As the torture went on, Wheelie's chest throbbed in agonizing pain! He didn't know how much more he could take! Suddenly the device pulled away and the electrical pulses finally ceased. Wheelie laid down in defeat and was knocked out cold within seconds. His body shut down into emergency stasis lock. The cage was lifted into a vehicle's trunk. The captors drove away from the scene while debating on what to do next now that the specimen was quiet.

Sometime later in the night, while they were still driving, Wheelie woke up in his cage. His body was still very sore from the abuse he'd endured. Warnings flashed inside his processor saying he was still in need of recharge. But Wheelie ignored the warnings and searched through his contact list and found Bumblebee. Wheelie was on the verge of slipping into recharge but barely got a message out. Bumblebee was rudely awakened by the sound of Wheelie's voice. It was shaky and weak. "Bumblebee. Humans did this." Wheelie cried. "Humans did this!" Bumblebee never got the chance to ask any questions because, right after Wheelie spoke, the connection went dead between the two and Bumblebee lost Wheelie's signal. Wheelie gave into his systems' warnings and was consumed in unpleasant sleep.


	2. Day One

Wheelie's optics onlined hesitantly. He remembered last night's events all too well and unless he was back in Sam's apartment, he wasn't sure he wanted to know where he was. Instead of attracting unwanted attention to himself by confirming he was awake, he onlined his optics just enough to scan the room. Once the scan was complete, he offlined his optics and captured the image of the room inside his processor. While on the outside, he continued to play dead. Inside his processor, he studied the scan of the room. The room he was inside was set up like a human doctor's office. Except for the fact that he was strapped down on an 'operating table' maybe, he was relatively comfortable. Surrounded by strange machinery, unable to move, and placed under a blinding white light. But still comfortable. It was an improvement over having to recharge in a metal cage, in a car trunk, on a bumpy road. The sound of footsteps caused Wheelie to freeze. Then the humans' conversation could be heard, followed by a door slam. Wheelie relaxed. They didn't seem to notice he was awake. There was some clattering of machinery that tempted Wheelie to online just one optic to take a look. But he refused to risk meeting eye to optic with these dangerous humans. Instead he used the scanned image of the room and the sounds the humans made to estimate where they were and what they were doing. One human was typing on a computer while he spoke to the other.

"You've got the first Formula ready?"

"Ready." His partner confirmed. The typing stopped. Both humans leaned close over Wheelie. He could feel them breathing on him. A clicking noise sounded, as if someone were loading a gun.

"Remember. We need him in good shape for the other ones. So as soon as we know this formula's effect on him, we remove it. Got it?" Wheelie got the 'Uh-oh!' feeling in his tanks. This really wasn't good. The human's partner must have nodded, for Wheelie heard no vocal response. When Wheelie felt light touch of metal on his chest, he knew he was on the wrong end of a gun or whatever twisted torture device that the humans had built. Wheelie braced himself. 'Please don't make it hurt.' Wheelie prayed. 'I never did anything bad to them. I'm a good mech.' Wheelie considered his previous life as a Decepticon. 'Well good now.' Suddenly Wheelie's spark chamber was being flooded with an unknown liquid. It stung his internal systems like poison, but his spark was taking to it like energon! The confused spark started spreading the poison into his body and mixing it with his real energon! Startled, Wheelie couldn't help but let out a yelp and online his optics. He had to stop the poison before it reached other important mechanical organs. Within seconds Wheelie was coughing and purging out the poison through his mouth. While in between pained gasps, Wheelie noticed how the two men just watched him. In a few seconds the humans decided they'd seen enough and implanted a blue powder like substance inside Wheelie by using another one of their wicked devices. The powder acted like a sponge and absorbed all of the poison. Wheelie gave one last cough and purged up everything. Powder, poison, and all. Wheelie studied the pool of energon that was spat on the table and dripping from his mouth. He'd lost a lot of good energon. When he was collected and realized he was fine, he hollered at the humans.

"You SLAGGERS! What in Pit was that for?" One human flashed a devious smile at Wheelie to taunt him.

"The others were smart enough not to talk back." He said. "The previous Decepticon we captured didn't survive half the things we've already tested on you. You must have a lot of hidden strength for such a small thing."

"Well I'm not your lab rat! I'm an Autobot and I have rights! You can't keep me here!" Wheelie snapped.

"Well." The man mimicked. "The way I see it, you are property of MONEE until you're no longer of use to us. Of course your friends could claim you as well, if the government knew we existed. Bottom line, as long as you stay here, you don't exist on the outside and you belong to us."

"I told you! I'm no Decepticon! They're the ones who want to kill you all. Why do you want me?"

"Because we couldn't care less about your faction in your robot war. Deep down you're all just different renditions of the same mindless destructive machine. We'll eliminate every last one of you. No matter who claims to protect or destroy us." Wheelie flashed his optics in shock and amazement. 'That wack job! Just how messed up are these people anyway?' Wheelie wondered.

"So what good came out of that..._test?" _Wheelie spat the word 'test' as if he could still taste and feel the poison.

"We now know that the Formula is close enough to energon, which you live off of, that you're body doesn't know the difference. And the Formula sticks to the real energon. So if one of your kind is infected with it and does not posses this," He held up a sample of the powder. "he will either be eaten alive by the Formula, or 'bleed' to death in an attempt to get the Formula out of him." He smiled triumphantly. Wheelie was absolutely disgusted with this human. Both MONEE agents walked towards the door. The one who spoke directly to Wheelie affectionately rubbed his finger tips over Wheelie's wheel-shoulder. "You should get some rest before the next test." He said plainly. Without warning, Wheelie's primitive instincts took control. CRUNCH!

Wheelie bared his fangs and tore ruthlessly at the fragile skin! But he wasn't satisfied with just a scratch. So he dug his fangs farther past the tiny muscles and clamped his jaws into the bone! The first crunching sound along with the human's screaming was amusing to Wheelie. The second crunch sounded absolutely sickening! The MONEE agent was still screaming and clutching his finger when Wheelie released him! Still relying on rage and instincts, Wheelie made a dreadful growling noise and lashed out with his fangs again like a wild animal! At first the agents stood scared stiff. But once they realized that Wheelie was still tied down, they relaxed slightly. Wheelie roared like he'd gone completely mad! Both agents bolted out of there without even thinking of looking back. Wheelie continued to roar and scream in a barbaric manner! It wasn't until the door slammed, when he finally snapped out of his enraged trance. When he was all alone, he realized what he had done. Wheelie laid his head back and looked up at the ceiling. He felt so ashamed of himself. Autobots protected humans no matter the circumstances. And he injured a man, not like a Decepticon, but like a mindless machine. The thing he was trying to prove he wasn't. What had he done?

Wheelie tasted the human's blood. It tasted awful. But no where near as awful as the guilt that was churning in the bottom of his tanks. He regretted every action he made in the last minute. Saying sorry to himself wouldn't do anything though. He couldn't do anything. He acted like a monster and there was no changing that. What would the Autobots think if they had seen him? Could he even call himself an Autobot anymore? How could an Autobot function, knowing he was a primitive monster inside? Maybe he wasn't meant to go back to the Autobots. Maybe some sentient beings were only mindless machines in disguise after all.


	3. Day One: continued

Sam needed a good night's rest. What he got was hours of restless tossing and turning, followed by a rude awakening from Bumblebee's car horn! Too lazy to get up and find out what Bumblebee's 'emergency' was, Sam put his pillow over his head and sighed into the mattress. Next to the car horn, the radio started blaring a medley of songs for the whole neighborhood to hear!

_"Oh baby I need you now." "Everyone's wondering. Will you come out tonight?" "And then a hero comes along. With the strength to" "Save a life." _Sam groaned. He felt for his cell phone on the bedside table and texted Bumblebee a not so kind 'you annoy me' text.

what do u want?

_Wheelie's in trouble! I got the location he was at while he contacted me. Who knows how far he could be from that point by now, but its a start. C'mon we've gotta go look for him!_ Sam reread the text in disbelief. Was he dreaming? Sam sat up in bed and texted the only sentence that could come close to the confusion he was feeling at the moment.

what did u just say?

Miles away, Wheelie continued his miserable night as MONEE's prisoner. He didn't dare recharge. But it didn't do him any good. By the time the MONEE agents came back for him, he was too exhausted to defend himself. Wheelie was simply too tired to recharge, too tired to fight, and too tired to care. The straps that held him to the table came off. He didn't move. Humans picked him up. He didn't retaliate in any way. They held him by the scruff bar and carried him into another room. Wheelie just hung limply in their hands. Some humans pointed and laughed at what used to be such a feisty little thing, but Wheelie drowned out their conversations and distracted himself with the empty thoughts inside his head. He was laid down on another table. This time in a computer lab. MONEE agents and scientists, all strangers to him, compared notes and occasionally probed at Wheelie. Now Wheelie didn't even have the energy to let out a moan of discomfort. At least he couldn't give them the satisfaction of his pain. At least not verbally. Suddenly all commotion in the lab went dead silent. Heads turned (including Wheelie's). A tall man with gray-black spiked hair and beard, jade green eyes, and a navy blue suit and tie confidently walked into the room with two body guards at his left and right.

'Whoa. Can you say "Criminal Minds"?' Wheelie thought. It was his first almost cheerful thought since he'd been captured. He felt a little better, getting the chance to laugh at someone else for a change. He smiled at how Mr. 'Perfect villain portrait' walked his way. Wheelie wondered if this freak could be real. The man looked at Wheelie eye to optic. Wheelie was startled by the unexpected stare. He approached Wheelie and all others cleared a path. Wheelie finally found the strength to stand up on his wheels. He was still much shorter than the man even with added height of the table, but Wheelie's motion in standing up sent a better message than him laying down submissively in front of who looked like one of MONEE's superiors. The man noticed Wheelie's attempt to stand tall against him, and laughed.

"Hook him up." The man ordered. "Begin Test: Electrocution Endurance. Let's see just how tough you are." If Wheelie was capable of real breathing, he would have gasped. He tried backing away but two humans already had him pinned down, and were struggling to keep him down. Wheelie fought with all the strength he could will himself to use! He pushed himself into a push-up position and refused to lay down on the table helplessly! He screamed from the massive amount of pressure being forced onto his back! One human reached under him and grabbed him by the torso. Not knowing what to do, Wheelie let his body go limp in the human's hand. The hand lifted him up a few inches and dropped him flat on the table. Before Wheelie could even think about scrambling to his knees, hands were all over him tying him up in chains, cords, and wires! Wheelie still screamed and fought till he could hardly move anymore. All that wasn't restrained was his head. When the harassment finally ceased, Wheelie had just enough time to exhale air through his vents, (It was the closest imitation of a human's 'calm down' sigh that he could make.) before he was hit with an excruciating surge of electricity! Wheelie's processor overloaded! His pain receptors were going haywire! All he could do was scream bloody murder! Nothing could channel the pain, for all of his body functions were being overworked! Through Wheelie's eyes, nothing else existed except for pain! And the pain constantly continued! He wasn't just hit with a single zap. It was a continuous charge of electrocution! Wheelie decided he couldn't last one more astrosecond living this nightmare! Before he could give it a second thought, he shut down every last form of defense, and left his body vulnerable to feel the full impact of the electricity with no protection! Wheelie didn't stand a chance against the humans' test, and offlined immediately, just as he planned to do!

The new day's light illuminated a dirty window, creating a soft glow that shined down on a motionless frame curled up on a cushioned mat in the first room he woke in. Wheelie's regenerating systems had been going non stop all night, since the second test. The MONEE guard who watched over him almost felt pity on Wheelie. Despite his allegiance to the Mission Of Nonbiological Extraterrestrial Extermination, he decided to at least let Wheelie get the proper recharge that he so desperately needed. Eventually Wheelie began to stir. Sensing that the prisoner was about to wake up soon, the guard stood over Wheelie and placed a small bottle with a tube on it close to Wheelie's face. The light stung Wheelie's optics as he slowly awoke, wondering how he was still alive. Wheelie's optics flickered as he adjusted to the uncomfortable light. He let out a tear filled cry, not caring who heard him anymore. This had to be the final straw. He'd been kidnapped, experimented, abused, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't escape. Not even through death! Wheelie cried miserably. The guard nudged the bottle closer to Wheelie. He still couldn't see too well, so he instinctively reached out for it. He grasped the bottle with his claws and felt the splash of cool liquid inside. 'Great, another formula.' Wheelie thought. Then he reconsidered his sarcastic remark. If he could cause enough damage to himself again, he could shut down again and avoid the next test. (Whether he blacked out into stasis or died going offline he really didn't care at the moment.) He found the straw-like tube and took his first sip.

The first sip tasted heavenly! It definitely wasn't energon, or a very good imitation of it. But it felt so soothing down Wheelie's tiny throat. He finally felt at total peace, for the first time since who knows when? Wheelie took in bigger gulps of the liquid. Energon didn't have much of a distinct taste. It was appetizing and refueled his body, but it didn't have a real specific taste. While drinking this new fuel (even though he wasn't too familiar with flavors,) Wheelie knew, this had to be _sweet. _The liquid calmed him, and also healed instantly what his body was trying to self heal all night. Wheelie's sight improved as well. He could clearly see the bottle and the guard standing over him. "I hope you enjoyed that." said the guard. He snatched the bottle away from Wheelie. Wheelie whimpered slightly as his formula of joy was taken away from him. "Lets hope that as long as we keep you on this, there won't be another accident." Wheelie sat up.

"Why didn't you let me die?" Wheelie choked. Just as Wheelie spoke, he saw the metal brace and bandage on the human's right index finger. 'Its you!' Wheelie thought. A buzzing alarm sounded off, and the human knew it was time for him to go. But before the human walked away, he told Wheelie.

"We're not through with you yet. There will be many more _small scale_ tests before we take the fight to the big guys." The door shut closed. He was alone with no restraints. Wheelie had the chance to run. (Break out the window, crawl through the air vents, etc...) But he didn't take it. Wheelie stayed where he was on his mat, without the least bit of motivation to move.


	4. Day Four

After four days of searching, Wheelie's trail had gone completely cold. The Autobot search party had no more leads to follow. The night Wheelie went missing, Bumblebee and Sam drove to Wheelie's location when he contacted Bumblebee. He was at a freeway off ramp. Of course it didn't take a genius to figure out that he was in a car when he sent the message. When Sam and Bumblebee realized how many different directions Wheelie could have gone after that, they called for back up. A search party of Sideswipe, Jolt, Skids, and Mudflap, joined them. The next day, Sam and Bumblebee reviewed their clues to Optimus Prime. One, humans were involved and were the most likely the kidnappers. They knew that of course, from Wheelie's message. Two, Wheelie was hurt. Every time Bumblebee played back Wheelie's message, the distressed tone in Wheelie's voice became more and more clear. Three, Sam noticed Wheelie was gone when he got home at approximately 9:15pm and Wheelie called Bumblebee at 1:45am. Four, the humans were exiting a freeway when Wheelie called. Five, Wheelie's spark signature could not be detected. So by assuming the worst, that was a good sign that Wheelie was already dead. But, it also meant that if Wheelie was still alive he was being kept in an environment with thick concrete walls, lots of electrical radio interference, or that was underground. Occasionally a lone spark signature would appear out of the blue, but it would go back into hiding before anyone could identify it as Wheelie's. The Autobots' extended search party could never find an entrance to a secret hide out anywhere near where the spark signature kept popping up. A construction site where a soon to be neighborhood was being built was all they ever found.

On the third day, Lennox and his soldiers got a hold of video footage from one of the state police officer who patrols the freeway. (With permission from the local police department of course.) He was hiding in plain sight (as many police officers did when on the look out for speeders.) looking down over the off ramp the night Wheelie was captured. Lennox was sure if they got as many license plate numbers as possible within the time frame that Wheelie's captors' car was suppose to be in the picture, they were sure to get the right car eventually. It was a great plan. In fact they got the right car, just not the right owner. The car that most likely had Wheelie inside had out of town license plates that belonged to a retired dentist in Atlanta, Georgia. So for the next day and a half, the Autobots were sent on a wild goose chase to track down a man who obviously was no criminal and incapable of hiding Wheelie anywhere. Embarrassed and frustrated, Lennox left the scene, promising the old man that they would find the guy who stole his license plates. So now they had one more clue. Wheelie's captors most likely drove a black ford mustang with stolen Atlanta license plates. By the end of the fourth day, the Autobots were only retracing their tracks. They didn't know what to do next. Sam and Bumblebee took the back roads home that night. Sam didn't want to go anywhere near the freeway. He didn't want to think about Wheelie so much anymore. Sam hoped Bumblebee would understand that, but Bumblebee didn't get the hint.  
><strong><br>**_"I'll find you somewhere." _Bumblebee played. Just that line, though. Just to get the point across.

"I'm not in the mood, Bee." Sam groaned.

_"You know you miss him." _This voice, Sam recognized as Shadow the retriever from one of his favorite childhood movies. Sam rolled his eyes.

"I don't miss him, Bee. Not really. He hates me, remember? I don't even know why he turned to me of all people. Just because _somebody _rejected both of us out, he's gotta come be the gremlin under my bed now? What's there to miss about him anyway?"

_"Okay. I miss his stupid jokes and his stupid face and his stupid stupidness!" _Played the next line of the movie. Sam couldn't believe he hadn't seen that one coming.

"Bumblebee. I'll admit I want Wheelie safe and I want him back. I just don't want him back in my apartment." Bumblebee shut off the radio for the rest of the drive home. He knew giving Sam the silent treatment wouldn't make Sam take back what he said, but he still wished it would. Bumblebee had learned to accept Wheelie as a fellow Autobot. Sam however, still did not take too well to Wheelie. Or so he said. Sam had to be just a tad bit worried about Wheelie deep down. He just knew it. Bumblebee wondered if there was anyone else they could reach out to who would help them find Wheelie. Of course there was! Maybe he could get more help after all. Sam would hate him for this, but he wouldn't be able to complain if Bumblebee actually got them help. It would be like sweet revenge in disguise. When they returned to the apartment, and Sam went inside, Bumblebee made a call. As the phone on the other end rang, Bumblebee suddenly realized the problem. How was he suppose to speak? He'd have to use the radio, but he wasn't so sure he could find the right words to say through lyrics. The phone picked up. 'Oh well.' Bumblebee thought. 'Just improvise.'

"Hello?" A familiar woman's voice answered. Bumblebee's processor went completely blank. What could he say?

_"Hold on. Before its too late." _Bumblebee was sure that would spark up a few memories. It did. Sort of.

"What do you want Sam!" Mikaela yelled. Bumblebee panicked. He never meant to make her any more mad at Sam. Bumblebee softly spoke to her in his real voice. Softly, so he couldn't risk damaging his voice even more. Surely she would recognize him now.

_"Vissst ehehmm-e m'chka." _There was a long silence.

"Bumblebee?" Bumblebee made a mechanical sighing noise. "What's going on Bee? Are you alright?" Bumblebee remembered the old days when he used to go to Mikaela's shop for repairs and washings. Back when Mikaela was Ratchet's apprentice in the medical field for Autobots. Back when Autobots were a part of Mikaela's life. Bumblebee played back Wheelie's message to Mikaela.

_"Bumblebee. Humans did this. Humans did this!" _Mikaela gasped at the sound of the quivering voice.

"My gosh! Was that Wheelie? What happened?" Bumblebee did his best to explain the situation to her. Unfortunately, she had no idea who would have taken Wheelie and had no clue where he would be. 'Now I've done it.' Bumblebee thought. He'd gotten Sam's ex-girlfriend involved, and she had nothing to help them with. Now that she was involved, she really couldn't turn away from them this time. Which was good or bad. He'd have to see in the morning when Sam and Mikaela would reunite at NEST.

The next morning, was not a good morning. Sam and Mikaela bickered for hours over why their relationship plummeted. Sam had school and Mikaela had her dad. Mikaela left without saying goodbye to Sam or Bumblebee. Wheelie was abandoned at the doorstep soon after, along with everything else that made Mikaela think of Sam or the Autobots. And they hated each other ever since for wasting two and a half good years of their lives together. Bumblebee wondered why he thought this would work. As if they were going to get anywhere in finding Wheelie with those two acting up all the time.


	5. Days Captured: unknown

Wheelie lost track of how many days he spent captured inside MONEE's walls. He hadn't seen the day's light since the morning he was introduced to Formula #2. (And even that light was dimmed by a dirty window.) The rest of his days there, he never saw a single window to the outside world. As the humans introduced him to more brutal tests, Wheelie learned to rely more and more on that formula. The formula's sweet taste and incredible healing power was all that kept him alive by the eighth test. It was all that made him get back up when the electricity, gunfire, or spears would knock him down. It was routine now. Wheelie suffered through the most inhumane experimental torture every day to keep his two rewards. His life and the formula which gave him reason to live. On one particular day, the routine changed. He wasn't rudely awakened by rough hands prying at him like he was a toy. (What really bothered Wheelie was that with an RC Monster truck for an alt mode, he sort of was a toy. So he never transformed to remind the humans of that.) When no human alarm clock came to haul him off, he relaxed and continued recharge. He didn't think about reason. He just assumed he got lucky and he'd been gifted with a few extra minutes of peace before the living nightmare started all over again.

But the peace and quiet didn't last long. About two minutes later, a horrible shrieking noise shattered Wheelie's audio receptors and made him jump backwards in fright. The bang to the head reminded Wheelie where he was. Stuffed inside a dog carrier cage. It was one of the places the humans placed him when they didn't want to put up with the trouble of watching over him. Like during his uncomfortable and often interrupted recharging cycles. Wheelie cursed at himself for being so stupid, and rubbed his head and his optics. The shriek sounded off again. The door to Wheelie's left opened with a loud clunk of the door knob. Two humans walked in. One seemed to be walking faster than the other as if he were agitated. Wheelie plopped down on the cage floor and played dead. He hoped that he could get a closer look at what the humans dragged in if they would just stay distracted by it and not look his way. When the humans passed by, Wheelie corrected himself. The humans were in fact distracted by, not_ it... _but _her! _From one of the human's hands, hung a femme drone. By the looks of her appearance with the rotors hanging back behind her head, Wheelie figured she transformed into an RC Helicopter.

Her optics were blazed with a red glow, but her face was too innocent to belong to a Decepticon. Her optics poured out tears, but she never made a sound. She looked so precious; it pained Wheelie to see such a pretty face in distress. He watched the humans carry her over to a cage similar to his own and watched them drop her in with such little care or respect. The sight of it all enraged Wheelie. His temper was just about to get the best of him, when the humans dropped the second cage off on the table next to his cage with a loud clunk! Wheelie caught the humans' conversation just in time for him to duck down and dim his optics.

"Are you certain it would be good to leave these two so close together? What if they make contact with each other?" The agitated one gave a snort to his partner, and shined a flashlight inside Wheelie's cage. Wheelie kept still and showed no signs of response.

"Definitely. He's knocked out cold. Neither of them will know the other exists." He banged his fist on the top of the femme's cage and made the metal door shake. Wheelie glanced up and watched the cackling humans leave. When they were alone, the femme finally wept and held nothing back. Wheelie peered through the openings on the side of his dog carrier cage. He could see a small glimpse of her red and white armor. It was trembling. The femme blubbered mixed up Cybertronian words in her crying. Wheelie wondered if that blubbering was meant to be a dear one's name who she was crying out to for comfort. Then again, drones weren't meant to feel emotion. It was extremely rare for a drone to develop a free willed spark. Remembering his days as a Decepticon, Wheelie had to ask himself. 'What Decepticon could really _care_ about a drone? A drone is only worth the data it retrieves. Does she really believe the Decepticons are coming to rescue her?' Wheelie lightly tapped on the inside of the cage. The femme quieted slightly, but didn't turn to face him. Wheelie whispered to her so he wouldn't startle her anymore than she already was.

"Hey, are you alright?"

"I'm scared." The femme whimpered. Wheelie's jaw dropped. Her voice was so angelic and sweet! Wheelie had to wonder if she was a singer.

"My designation's Wheelie." The sniveling femme turned around and looked at him through the cage. All he could see of her now were her bright red optics and he was sure optics were all she could see of him. The red optics and the blue optics looked into each other and saw they're different but similar worlds intertwine. The moment almost seemed magical.

"I'm Mayday. Faction, Decepticon." She smiled with such grace and beauty. He couldn't see the smile, but he saw the joyful smile in her optics. What bothered him though was how she said her faction with such pride.

"Autobot." Wheelie stated. Mayday seemed to wince at the word Autobot, but she soon got over it and was able to carry on a conversation with him.

"How long have you been here?" Mayday asked.

"A week or so, maybe." Wheelie guessed. "Did you get here last night?"

"Yeah. Humiliating, to be grabbed off the streets by humans, huh?"

"No kiddin'. How'd they get you?"

"You're going to think this is stupid but, a net." Mayday laughed.

"A net?"

"Yeah really!" Mayday laughed harder, totally oblivious to just how much Wheelie loved that laugh of hers. "It's pathetic really. To be captured so easily."

"Hey, I got a cage thrown at me, AND they tased me!"

"Primus! Were you hurt?"

"Slag yeah! But that hardly slowed me down. I was kickin' and screamin'! I even bit a man's finger."

"Seriously? Was there blood?"

"Yeah."

"Gross!" She said with pleasure. "I bet that revenge was disgustingly sweet!"

"Yeah! That's exactly what I thought when I heard the crunch!" Wheelie lied. He wasn't the least bit proud of that memory. But he'd tell Mayday anything, just to hear her laugh.

They carried on like that for the next half hour. Talking like they were old friends. When MONEE agents came to take Mayday away, Wheelie hid in the back corner of his cage. He knew they shouldn't have been talking, and he didn't want Mayday to get hurt. She was too innocent to be a Decepticon. She was very strong willed and definitely wasn't the prissy type as Wheelie assumed she'd be. The way she found humor in being grossed out impressed Wheelie. But Mayday was without a doubt, still too timid and fragile for war. Wheelie knew that from the beginning. She didn't deserve to be there. As Wheelie watched his new friend being carried away, he wondered when he would see her again. Could he speak to her again? Wheelie thought about how easily Mayday was likely to break under the pressure he'd already been through. What if he could save her and help her escape? Then the craziest of all questions came to Wheelie's processor. What if he and Mayday, Autobot and Decepticon, escaped together?


	6. Day Fourteen

After two weeks, the search ended. The Autobots had to accept that there was nothing more they could do. Mikaela, who felt like she'd wasted her time in coming to NEST, packed up her things and prepared to leave. She felt so helpless. She couldn't stand the little glitch, but she couldn't live with herself, knowing he was hurt or dead. Mikaela hated herself not being able to help. She had nothing to blame herself for, yet she couldn't help feeling guilty or at fault for something. Sam noticed Mikaela standing by her new motorcycle. As curious as he was, he couldn't find the courage to _really_ talk to her. So good ol' Bumblebee did his best to encourage him.

_"Say something to her." _Bumblebee said, quoting an animated candle stick.

"What's there to say?" Sam replied coldly while leaning against the driver's door. It was questions like these that took Bumblebee some time to properly respond to. These questions were a challenge, but they never shut him up. In a few minutes, Bumblebee found the perfect song.

_"Step one, you say "We need to talk." He walks. You say "Sit down its just a talk.""_

The radio played just loud enough to catch Mikaela's attention. She turned around. She didn't say a word and let Bumblebee do the talking.

_"He smiles politely back at you. You stare politely right on through. Some sort of window to your right. As he goes left and you stay right. Between the lines of fear and blame. You began to wonder why you came. Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend. Somewhere along in the bitterness. And I would have stayed up with you all night. Had I'd known how to save a life."_

Mikaela watched them for a moment. She took one step forward and stopped dead in her tracks like something was holding her back. She turned her back to them and took her cell phone out of her front pocket. A few seconds later Sam's cell phone vibrated. He flipped it open.

im so sorry. i just cant talk 2 u. u must think im so selfish. Sam read. He realized she was just as scared of talking to him as he was to her. They had too much bad history together. Which came with a lot of good history too. But how could they talk to each other like they were acquaintances, after all they'd been through? It just wasn't possible.

its ok. i know what u r going thru. Sam replied. They both looked up from their phones. 'Awkward stare. Time to change the subject.' Sam thought. Luckily Mikaela texted him again.

its my fault. if it werent 4 me, wheelie would be safe w/ me. Sam had to wonder if she was apologizing for their break up. No, she was apologizing for hers and Wheelie's 'break up'.

no its mine. he ran away from me cuz i wuz 2 harsh on him.

really?

yep.

do u miss him?

no! ok. i said this 2 bee 2. i want him back & i want him safe. i just don't want him back in my apartment or my life!

what a shame. from what i heard, he really liked u.

what r u saying? he hates me!

hated, Sam. he hated you.

i still don't get it.

me n wheelie kept in touch 4 a while aftr he left.

left? you kicked him out cuz u didn't want anything else reminding u of me or autobots.

did he tell u that?

yeah.

he lied. hes travel size. not travel convenient. i couldn't keep him in my purse or locked in the shop or crammed in some other small space all his life.

so u let him go so he could hav more freedom?

yeah.

so why'd he come to me?

he hated u when u stole his warrior goddess. he liked u when u accepted him when he had no where else 2 go. that's what he told me.

that's the truth huh?

sure is. Sam felt a punch of guilt hit him in the stomach. It was official. He would admit that he truly sincerely missed Wheelie. Wheelie obviously wasn't super excited about staying in his apartment when he first arrived. But he wouldn't stop going on and on about how he was old news to Warrior Goddess and he'd be a useless runt bot around the rest of the Autobots at base. (Or worse, a useless wreck under someone's foot. Human or Autobot.) It all made sense now. He kept ranting on about it because half of what he was saying was a lie. A cover up story over the truth. i gotta go. txt me if u find anything. Mikaela texted. Sam looked up at her. She was starting her motorcycle.

c u later then?

4 wheelie's sake i hope so. She put the phone away and burned out into the distance. Sam watched her til she was out of sight.

Assuming that he was eves dropping and read the text messages on his phone, Sam asked Bumblebee. "Do you think there's still hope, Bee? For Wheelie or for me and her?" Bumblebee's radio answered.

_"We must believe. That again we will receive. We must believe. That its gonna get better. Don't give up. Never give up. We won't stop givin' all we got. Don't give up. Never give up. We won't stop givin' all we got." _Sam smiled up at the setting sun, feeling a bit better.

"I think we should go home now." Sam said quietly. Bumblebee's door clicked open and welcomed Sam inside.


	7. Day Fifteen Part One

In the days that passed since Wheelie met Mayday, Wheelie never spoke to her again. He caught a glimpse of her every once in a while when the humans would transition their cages between rooms. Sometimes he would even hear her cries and screams. He was sure she could hear his too. Wheelie didn't want to escape anymore. What he wanted most in the world was to talk to Mayday again, his only friend that was his own species. She was also his only friend since Mikaela. Wheelie began to notice patterns about him and his friend. They always passed each other the same times on the same days of the week. The humans were keeping them on a tighter and closer schedule than before. Soon, it became a daily routine to see Mayday's red armor pass by in her own cage carried by another human. Wheelie figured that the humans were comparing the test results side by side now. Wheelie began his plan to make contact.

Finally he got his chance. One day he was let out of his cage. A familiar face lifted him up by the scruff bar and held him up to his face. Wheelie knew this man to be MONEE's superior. Wheelie didn't care for his name. Just as they didn't care for his. His grip on him hurt, but Wheelie knew better by now than to struggle against it. The next thing Wheelie saw was Mayday being dumped from her cage, onto a table. They made optic contact, but Wheelie didn't speak to her. He and Mayday weren't suppose to know of each other's existence. So why were the humans allowing them to meet again?

"You've made a friend haven't you?" The man asked Wheelie.

"If you have any respect for the femmes of my species or of yours, you will spare her the torture and you will let, her, go!" Wheelie demanded. He'd never used that tone of voice before. He was defending a Decepticon femme. That was new too. The man looked at Mayday, who was laying on her back under the force of a couple human hands. Her body was spazzing and shaking rapidly. Surely it had to be the results of the third formula they injected into her. She was still having trouble regaining physical control of herself. 'Perfect.' the man thought.

"Get her the tub." he commanded. Wheelie tensed up.

"What are you doing?"

"You remember the first formula we gave you, don't you?" The man said turning Wheelie to face a wide plastic tub the other humans were carrying in. It held at least three gallons of the formula! Wheelie's worst fears were realized! They were going to drown her in poison! The humans who held Mayday, pulled her up so she was kneeling over the tub and looking down into the liquid. She shook even more from the sobs and tears that escaped her. She knew it was poison too.

"Please let her go! You already know what that stuff does! What is this suppose to test anyway?" Wheelie wailed.

"You two have completed all of your tests and we have everything we need to rip your bigger friends apart. You are useless to us now. The only thing left to do with you now is dispose of you. And of course the most, _inhumane_ way to do that would be this of course." He motioned to the tub of formula and a couple devices which were also used in the tests. "Just to make sure they work right and that they'll actually kill." the man added.

"Please don't hurt her anymore! Please!" Wheelie begged. He couldn't lose her! She meant everything to him! And he promised her that he'd save her!

_(Flashback:)_

Wheelie laid in his own energon, sprawled on the table. He was cut open and bleeding out more than _just a sample _as the humans had said they needed. While the humans looked away from him, a light clinking noise from under him caught his attention. Though it wasn't very smart, Wheelie dragged himself off of the table and plopped down on the floor. He spilt more precious energon, but hardly even cared. He knew that sound and he had to find it. He hid under the table cloth and crawled for the air vent located on the wall in front of him. He clawed the vent off the wall and opened up a tunnel. The tunnel was suddenly filled with light. Whatever was in there tried to hide from the light but the light found it. Wheelie corrected himself again. Found her. Her? Wheelie's blue optics ignited with excitement! Yes it was her! Mayday scrambled forward and hugged him the astrosecond she realized who he was! Wheelie hugged her just as tight. It was overwhelming for the two to feel the other's company. Neither had felt loving arms around them in so long! Wheelie wondered if Mayday had ever experienced friendship as a Decepticon drone. She probably hadn't. It was one thing to have hope stare back at you through a cage and comfort you. But now the two drones were in each other's arms. Against all odds, Wheelie truly did believe at that moment that they would both be okay. Somehow.

"Where's the robot?" One human said.

"You lost it? You idiot!" Another yelled. Mayday scooted back into the wall. Wheelie's wide optics pleaded for her to stay. She tried to say his name but Wheelie quickly stopped her. They couldn't afford to make a sound with the humans looking for him now. As footsteps approached, Wheelie huddled closer to the taller femme. The footsteps trailed off in another direction and the drones relaxed a little. Mayday looked at her hands which were wet with Wheelie's leaking energon. She looked at him with fright. Suddenly Wheelie had an idea. He scooted back so there was some space between them on the floor. He raised an energon soaked hand and wrote out a message to her. He figured she'd be most familiar with Decepticon text, so that is what he wrote in.

**_-Primus! I missed you! What happened to you?-_** Wheelie wrote. He wondered if she would respond. Mayday read the text and smeared it away. She wasn't one bit phased by the fact that she was writing a response message to him in his own energon.

**_-My rotors broke off when I escaped. I can't fly or transform. I've been hiding in here for hours, but there's no way out.- _**She started to choke up a little. Wheelie massaged the back of her head around the rotors. Wheelie could imagine how sensitive her rotors were. He felt so bad for her.

**_-Don't cry. I'm going to get us out of here.- _**Wheelie wrote.

**_-You're an Autobot and you're a drone. What can you do?-_**

**_-Its not smart to underestimate your enemy. Or your friend.- _**Mayday looked at him in amazement.

**_-You're really going to save us aren't you?"-_**

**_-Mayday, I will promise you this. You're the only Decepticon I would ever lay my life down for.- _**Mayday smiled at him. **_-I promise I will save us.- _**he added. That was the last thing he wrote before the table cloth flipped up and the humans grabbed him by the legs. He screamed in terror. Mayday tried to pull him into the vent with her, but his arms quickly slipped from her energon soaked hands. she hated to leave him, but she had no other choice. She crawled back and scurried away through the tunnel. Wheelie was captured again and thrown inside his cage again. That night, Wheelie heard Mayday screaming. She must have been forced out of the air vents. Wheelie held a gentle fist as if he were holding hands with someone. Then he wondered if his last message was still written on the floor. He wondered if it would stain forever. **_-I promise I will save us.- _**Wheelie promised himself that he would keep that promise to Mayday.

_(End Flashback:)_

Wheelie felt so ashamed of himself. Now more than ever. He broke the promise to Mayday and to himself. And Mayday was going to pay for it most of all! A human held Mayday's head just an inch above the poison. Her tears made the poison ripple. Wheelie was absolutely stunned watching the horrifying scene. MONEE's superior said something to him, but Wheelie couldn't understand with the mess of emotion swirling around in his processor. Wheelie did understand one thing the man said when he focused on him, and that was the command, "Drown her."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Wheelie screamed.


	8. Day Fifteen Part Two

Mikaela didn't want to get up on that particular morning. When she first opened her eyes, there was a moment of peace. Then she became fully awake, and all the memories came back. Wheelie was still missing. He wouldn't have been captured if she'd only kept him around a while longer. That was all that she thought about in the last fifteen days. What she could have done differently if only she'd known this would happen. Of course she was sure that was all that was on Sam's mind too. There was no doubt he was worried about Wheelie, especially after Sam and Mikaela's text conversation. When Mikaela decided there was no use in trying to fall back to sleep, she kicked off the covers and prepared herself for the day, and one last try.

Half an hour or so later, Sam's cell phone vibrated from inside Bumblebee's cab. Bumblebee honked twice at Sam who was standing not to far away, writing something down on a sheet of paper. He shoved the paper into his pocket and jogged over to Bumblebee. To answer the question Bumblebee was sure Sam was about to ask, he imitated Sam's home phone answering machine.

_"You have...one...new message and zero...old messages."_ Sam opened Bumblebee's driver side door, and took his phone off the dash board. He pressed a few buttons to search through his messages. Just as Bumblebee said, there was a new voicemail. To Sam's surprise, it was from Mikaela.

"What'd she want?" Sam mumbled, but regretted his tone. He and Mikaela were almost on good terms again after all. Bumblebee internally grinned in his alt mode. He couldn't resist this!

_"You're on the phone with your girlfriend. She's upset. She's going off about something that you said, 'cause she doesn't get your humor like I do."_ Sam couldn't help but laugh at that.

"You are so weird!" Sam laughed. When Bumblebee first became Sam's guardian, he had some difficulty understanding this 'compliment'. But in time he learned to understand it better. It was a compliment to be a little weird because being weird, silly, and goofy made humans laugh and made them feel happy. It was very similar to how Cybertronians' emotions worked. Bumblebee just couldn't believe he hadn't realized that similarity earlier. While Sam listened to the voicemail, Bumblebee started another song.

"Hey Sam, its me."

"Honey why you calling me so late?" Bumblebee played.

"Shhh!" Sam said while pressing his phone closer to his ear.

"I know everyone's kind of giving up on the search, but I think I've got one last thing I'm willing to try. And if you're up for it, I could really use some help. Okay, so remember that spark signature that would randomly pop up near that construction site? The site that NEST was suppose to search, but couldn't because they couldn't get a search warrant? And of course you know they couldn't get a search warrant because they'd have to explain searching for an Autobot, not a person and all that classified stuff. Anyway, I just have to know the truth about what happened to Wheelie and this might be the only way. Meet me there in two hours. Thanks for your help. Bye." Sam put the phone away and sat down in Bumblebee's driver seat. Without saying a word, he backed out of the driveway. Bumblebee made a few beeping noises in what sounded like a questionable tone.

"I'm not sure about all of this. But as long as she knows what she's doing, I guess we've got nothing to lose."

Mikaela parked her motorcycle across from the targeted area. From what she could see, the whole constructions site set up looked completely normal. She had to remember though, that was all it really was. A set up. Right on time, a yellow camaro pulled up next to her. Sam stepped out. They exchanged glances in silence. Sam dared to be the first to speak.

"So you think Wheelie's in there?"

"Not in there." Mikaela corrected. "Under there. Like how the Allspark stayed hidden at Hoover Dam for so long without being detected. Wheelie's got to be somewhere under all of that. The question is, where _exactly_ are those people hiding him, and where's the entrance?"

"You've had a lot of time to figure this out haven't you?"

"Fifteen days, yes." Mikaela started walking across the street.

"Well, wait a minute! Don't you have a plan?" Sam demanded.

"I'm getting Wheelie back. That's my plan!" She kept walking. Sam looked at Bumblebee.

"Is she crazy?" Bumblebee didn't answer. He just revved his engine a little and opened his door to nudge Sam forward. Sam took a few steps, but stopped against Bumblebee's gentle gesture for him to move. Sam turned to say something when his jaw suddenly dropped. He was startled from suddenly realizing another human being was standing so close to him. The human winked at Sam, folded his arms, and leaned against Sam's car. 'Of course.' Sam thought when he realized who it was. The human was in fact Bumblebee. Sam looked the teenage holoform over. His eyes were still the same shade of blue and his short hair was still the same color of sandy blonde. But Sam knew something about Bumblebee had changed since he'd seen Bumblebee's holoform last. His face seemed different. Almost as if he had...aged. Sam pondered the concept of robots aging, but his attention caught something else. Bumblebee passed by him and was following Mikaela into the construction zone. "What are you doing? Bee!" Bumblebee turned around and waved his hands up.

**Rescue mission! **Bumblebee signed. **Want to come? **Sam groaned and slowly dragged his feet after them. He couldn't believe he was doing this! Yes, rescuing Wheelie was why he and Bumblebee came, but how far did Mikaela and Bumblebee expect luck to get them? They had no idea of what to expect, and no back up. But if everyone else was going, Sam really had no choice but to take a chance on his luck, and see how far it would get them. On the site, there was hardly any activity. Just a handful of people wandered around. Between Sam, Mikaela, and the fifteen foot robot in disguise, the few enemy humans weren't much of a threat. Still, they decided to play it safe and not attract any unwanted attention. The trio split up and dodged around equipment for a few minutes before they regrouped behind a bulldozer to share their status reports.

"So?" Sam asked.

"I've got nothing." Mikaela admitted. Bumblebee's blue eyes were still flashing as he continued scanning over the landscape. He shook his head at the results. There was no tunnel entrance above ground. But there was definitely a large amount of solid steel just below their feet. No doubt it was the humans' base of operation. Bumblebee's scan picked up images of the underground steel, but couldn't analyze anything below the steel. Bumblebee focused back on his above ground surroundings and looked at Sam.

**We are standing over their base. We can't get down inside unless we start digging and drilling and somehow go unnoticed.**

"Well that's not gonna work." Sam said. Mikaela gave a confused look to him and then Bumblebee. Sam suddenly realized that Mikaela didn't understand Bumblebee's sign language. "He said their base is directly under us and we can't get down to it." He told her. Bumblebee nodded.

"But people have to be able to get inside somewhere. And what about Wheelie's spark signature? Those times when it showed up. Maybe then he was near an exit and he was closer to the surface."

**Here, the steel wall is three feet below us and I still can't scan through it. The wall's thickness must be blocking the scan and not necessarily the thickness of dirt.**

"We'll just have to keep searching." Sam told them both.

**S.A.M I already searched every inch of the area above ground and every speck of dirt below ground for as far as my scan could reach without interference from the steel. I know. There is no where left to search. There is no way in.**

Sam could never argue with Bumblebee's logic. Deep down he had a feeling his friend was right. But he couldn't let himself believe it. Even if it was true. Sam tried to think of something to say, but he was interrupted by the humans who had finally spotted them. They came running at them screaming!

"HEY! What are you doing here?" One of the men barked. Sam didn't have time to imagine all the consequences of getting caught. His panicked train of thought was interrupted when Bumblebee's holoform pushed in front of them and took a defensive position. Bumblebee suddenly flickered and materialized back into his fifteen foot yellow robotic form! In Sam's mind, he begged Bumblebee not to give them away so easily. But even if Bumblebee could have heard Sam's thoughts, he wouldn't have listened. Bumblebee thought this was necessary to protect Sam and Mikaela. And if Bumblebee thought so, he would do so! The humans stopped dead in their tracks, not the least bit scared, but thrilled! The average person wouldn't dare aim a gun at a giant robot and his bigger gun, but not these guys! The group instantly brought out there guns! Bumblebee revealed his arm cannon to them. He wasn't the least bit scared of their primitive weapons, but their confidence made him feel uneasy. Something wasn't right. One of the humans spoke up. "We thought you'd come for you're little friend sooner. I don't blame you for hesitating to come. You should have heard him rambling on about you 'Autobots'. He betrayed you all to savor one more minute of life before we finally crushed him!" He mocked.

"I don't believe you!" Mikaela shouted. Her true emotions were hidden by her death stare.

"And who cares about what you think? Y-" The man would have said more but flinched when Bumblebee aimed his weapon directly at him.

_"Okay talk! I know you had something to do with this! Now where's Lilo? Talk!" _Bumblebee demanded. The man looked at him and then at Sam and Mikaela. He certainly wasn't expecting that from a giant robot. Bumblebee suddenly tensed up and looked off into the distance! By the time the helicopters came into sight, it was too late for Bumblebee to roll out with all the humans in the way! Bumblebee knelt down to shield Sam and Mikaela and to protect himself from the inevitable attack! The helicopters' harpoons shot at Bumblebee! They caught onto his joints and pulled back! Bumblebee tumbled down and narrowly missed knocking into Sam! Bumblebee screamed! This couldn't be happening to him! Not again! Sam and Mikaela tried to extract the harpoons from Bumblebee's metal! The humans began to move to capture Sam and Mikaela, but Bumblebee wouldn't allow it! He got to his knees and pulled against the helicopters! He pushed Sam and Mikaela farther behind him! Bumblebee screamed louder from the harpoons pulling his joints in opposite directions, also from the agony his screaming was causing his vocals! Even with no paralyzing gases, Bumblebee struggled to keep his head up! Fear overwhelmed him! He begged Primus that he would never have to suffer through that long night at Sector Seven ever again! Would he really have to relive the traumatic experience?

"Noooooo!" Sam screamed. Bumblebee was brought out of his painful memories when he saw Sam and Mikaela running in front of Bumblebee to guarding him! While Sam stayed closer to Bumblebee, Mikaela held up her fists, ready for defense or attack!

"Stand down girly." One man ordered. "Someone could get hurt." Mikaela didn't waste any more time! She swung her fist out and let him have it! One blow bloodied his nose! Unfortunately, he didn't hold back either and raised his gun! BANG!

The human's gunfire could barely be heard over Bumblebee's shot. Bumblebee blasted a crater straight into the ground! The blast broke through the layer of steel below and sent them all hurdling down! When the ground gave in, Bumblebee's restraints did too! They snapped from the force of gravity! As they fell into the Earth, Sam hung onto Bumblebee for dear life, and Mikaela's body limply fell with them.


	9. Day Fifteen Part Three

"Mikaela?" Sam whispered. He lifted himself out of the dirt and debris. There wasn't much to see in the darkness around him so Sam looked up. A dim beam of sunlight shined down from the outside. Sam smiled at their seemingly bad fortune. Sure they must have fallen a few stories deep into a hole, but they weren't trapped. No. They were in! A pair of blue optics' glow lit up the room. When Sam noticed his head's shadow against the blue light he got up to his feet and spun around. Bumblebee's big blue optics starred back at him. Sam smiled and patted Bumblebee's head. "You okay?" Bumblebee nodded. He didn't show it, but inside him Bumblebee was battling with a whole sea of emotions. NEST had suspected previous S7 members being involved. But Bumblebee never imagined this! He'd come so close to reliving that dreadful night under Sector Seven's microscope all over again, and he was struggling to hold himself together. But he never let Sam see it. Sam's voice quickly brought Bumblebee back to the present when called for Mikaela again. Seconds of dead silence seemed to pass by excruciatingly slow. Bumblebee scanned franticly for her body. Mikaela finally gave a soft moan and Bumblebee located her instantly. He and Sam came to her side across the room. Sam hugged her and combed his fingers through her hair. When the light of Bumblebee's optics illuminated Mikaela, Sam shuddered at the sight of her bruises she earned from the fall. But Bumblebee was more concerned about her bullet wound.

The bullet was meant to shoot through her torso, but at the last second Mikaela held up her hand in a sideways fist. The bullet still fired through her hand and shattered every phalanx bone, but its speed slowed down tremendously. The damage was much less serious than it could have been. Mikaela was extremely lucky. Bumblebee's scan showed no internal bleeding, but there was much damage to the center of her rib cage. She had a huge crack in the two bottom ribs. Now they were divided in the middle where large fragments of the bone broke off. Mikaela wasn't showing any signs of pain. Her breathing was normal and she was clearly aware of the situation as she hugged Sam back. (No confusion or dizziness.) Bumblebee moved in for a closer look. He poked at Sam's shoulder and Sam scooted away.

"Bee?" Mikaela squeaked. Bumblebee didn't look up at her. He continued scrutinizing her rib cage area. He reached two fingers for her shirt. Mikaela stopped him with her good hand and pushed him away. Bumblebee looked stunned. He only wanted to examine the wound from the outside. Didn't she know he would never do anything to offend her? Didn't she trust him not to examine more than what was necessary?

_"Wounded_." Bumblebee replied from a Little Big Town song.

"I'm fine Bumblebee. Really." She lied. Mikaela carefully stood up with Sam close by her side. Mikaela stumbled a bit but regained her balance. She rubbed at her wound with a half smile and half pained expression on her face. Bumblebee shook his head. 'She's too brave.' Bumblebee thought. "Bumblebee, now that we're in here, can you find Wheelie?" Mikaela asked. Bumblebee's scanners searched down the corridor. He found several humans armed with weapons, probably looking for them. Bumblebee scanned farther until he finally found what he was looking for! 'Yes!' Bumblebee cheered inside his mind. No doubt, Wheelie was alive! Not in good shape by the distress Bumblebee sensed his spark was in, but definitely still alive! They still had a chance! Bumblebee copied the scanned route and saved it inside his processor like an internal map. Bumblebee couldn't contain his excitement any longer, and they couldn't afford to waist any more time.

_"He's alive!" _A young boy's voice exclaimed. Sam and Mikaela perked up as well.

"Wait! You know where he is?" Mikaela shouted.

_"We have far to go and little time to get there!" _Bumblebee said while in transformation. Bumblebee swung his doors open for both of them. Sam and Mikaela eagerly climbed in. Bumblebee floored it out of there, off to the rescue! Moments later, Bumblebee swerved around a tight corner and made an unexpected halt. When Sam and Mikaela got out they looked for...anything. Wheelie wasn't here. It was just a dead end corridor. Bumblebee flashed his right blinker. Sam and Mikaela just stared. Bumblebee's blinker blinked faster. Sam and Mikaela still didn't get it. Bumblebee made a loud groaning noise and transformed into his human holoform. He marched over to a door on his right and with an overly dramatic attitude, waved his hand for them to enter. Sam opened the door and stepped inside the small closet space. Mikaela followed him inside and Bumblebee closed the door behind them. The tiny space was way too crammed for the three of them. While stumbling around for a light switch, Sam walked over Mikaela's feet and Mikaela pushed him into the wall several times. While the two humans fumbled around in the dark, the alien robot who could adjust his visual senses from day vision to night vision, stood back in a corner and patiently waited for Sam and Mikaela to move out of his way. When they tripped and collapsed over each other, Bumblebee walked to the center of the small room, reached above his head, and pulled on a small beaded string hanging from a light bulb. From the floor, Sam and Mikaela looked up. They both sighed. Sam knew they were all gonna laugh about this someday. 'How many humans does it take to turn on a light bulb?' He thought.

Bumblebee helped them up and directed their attention to the wall opposite to the door. He kneeled down and pulled a drawer out of the wall. There was only space for one person to peek into the next room. So Bumblebee spelled Mikaela's name, waved his hand from her to him, and pointed his middle and index fingers at his eyes, and then pointed them through the space in the wall.

**M.I.K.A.E.L.A. Come look**

Mikaela didn't have the slightest idea that those first hand signs were her name, let alone letters. But she did understand the universal motion for "come here". She kneeled beside Bumblebee and looked through the hole in the wall. Mikaela gasped at what she saw. She sat there petrified by the horror she was watching. Sam shook her shoulder and asked what was happening, but Mikaela couldn't respond. Bumblebee stood up and told Sam what his scan could see beyond the wall.

**W.H.E.E.L.I.E. He is hurt. A human has a hold on him. There is another C.Y.B.E.R.T.R.O.N.I.A.N. captive. Humans threaten to kill her and Wheelie both.**

"Who's this other Cybertronian?" Sam asked.

**Not one of ours.**

"Oh." Sam said. Clearly it was a Decepticon. "What are we gonna do?"

**Something crazy. Are you with me?**

"Of course." Sam answered. Bumblebee grabbed a lab coat and a MONEE uniform form off a hanger on the wall. He placed them in Sam's arms and responded,

**Good. You and M.I.K.A.E.L.A put these on. I have a plan!**

Outside Wheelie's room, Mikaela prepared herself to burst through the doors. She was fully dressed in her disguise, with her hair pulled back in a braid, a long lab coat hiding her street clothes, and orange safety goggles over her eyes. Mikaela thought Bumblebee's plan through one more time, but her thoughts were interrupted by a loud scream! 'Wheelie!' Mikaela remembered. Why was she still standing there? She had to save him NOW! Mikaela swung the doors open and slammed it behind her with raging fury! The first thing she saw was Wheelie trembling in the cruel hand of a stranger. Mikaela hardly looked at the man before she started yelling.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOIN'!" Mikaela's disguised voice was nasally and annoying. (She really thought she'd out done herself this time!) "Nothin'! That's what you're doin'! Nothin'! There are intruders inside the perimeter, and you are doin' nothin'?"

"Excuse me, but I don't remember hiring you. Who are you?" MONEE's superior replied.

"_Excuse me, _but I am your Alfa! Your best player! Your queen! YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE!" The man stared at her. "That's right! I'm bad. You get on my nerves _just once,_ and this boot will be the one kicking you out the door!" She stomped her foot twice to make her high healed boot make a 'clunk, clunk' noise. Wheelie smiled at that. 'Yes! Please! Please Primus! Anything to make him leave!' He begged.

"What makes you think you have the authority to throw me out? I created MONEE! Me!" He threw Wheelie on the floor! Wheelie whimpered and curled up in a ball. The man kicked and rolled Wheelie over! His foot thrusted down on Wheelie's fragile arm! Though the pain was unbearable, Wheelie wouldn't scream anymore. He was tired and ready to die. 'What's the point of screaming?' he thought. 'You're a dead mech. You and Mayday are goners! Just let them kill you already! No one is coming for you! Its hopeless!' Mikaela had to stop this!

Mikaela leaned in really close, and then WACKED the man with her good hand across the face. "You wanna do somethin' about that?" Mikaela taunted. That perked Wheelie up. He hadn't seen another woman in the MONEE organization til then. At the moment, Wheelie didn't care if the lady swore to kill him. There was something about her that comforted him. He liked her, whoever she was. Wheelie laid his head back down, dead tired. "Go wake up your lazy security guards and find those kids with their big yellow thing! I'm not you're problem! They are!" Mikaela ordered. Wheelie didn't even hear it. He was already drifting into recharge. He'd finally reached his limit of abuse and couldn't take anymore. When he awoke again, his first thought was why was he still alive? His next thought was, maybe he really was dead! Leaning over him was the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen! He could have sworn she was an angel. Then she spoke with that nasally annoying voice that wrecked Wheelie's angelic daydream.

"I hope ya sure had a lousy time here, because once you're out of here, you're never comin' back!" She laughed. Wheelie just stared at her. She put her hand behind his back and helped him sit up. She laughed again, but this laugh was different. It matched her beauty and made her smile seem to glow. Wheelie knew that voice. 'Couldn't be!' he thought. "What?" She teased. "Doesn't Wheelie miss his Warrior Goddess?" Wheelie jumped up, hugged her around her neck and burst into tears.

"I can't believe you're here!" Wheelie cried. Mikaela hugged him back and picked him up. "Warrior Goddess?"

"Hmm?"

"I just wanted to thank you and..." Wheelie sighed. "I'm really gonna sound like a sparkling when I say this."

"Wheelie, you can tell me anything." Mikaela said. Wheelie lost it there. He hid his wet optics in the collar of her coat and just started bawling! Mikaela felt awful for the poor shaking body in her arms.

"Don't let them hurt me anymore! Please!" Wheelie gasped. Mikaela hugged him a little tighter and massaged his dented armor.

"I promise, Wheelie. You're safe with me." Mikaela whispered. Wheelie's cries softened. They stayed there, wrapped in each other's embrace, for what felt like hours. When they'd both settled down, Mikaela remembered how crucial it was that they get out of there as soon as possible. She started to carry him towards the door, but Wheelie caught a glimpse of the back of the room and started to squirm in her arms.

"Wait! Wait! Where is everybody?" He said, looking at where he'd last seen Mayday.

"Its okay. I sent him away for Sam and Bumblebee to take care of." Mikaela reassured him.

"No! I mean May-... hey wait! What are you talking about?"

Down the hallway the angry MONEE superior was on a mission. The first part of his mission was to find those kids with the yellow thing. The second part was figuring out how in the world that psychotic woman passed as one of MONEE's employees. As he passed by his office, he saw someone sitting at his computer. He noticed from his angle, the boy looked way too young to be working for him. Now that he thought about it, the strange girl looked a little young too. Then it dawned on him! The intruders! Those kids tricked him! But now he had one alone. He crept into his office real quietly. Just as he'd hoped, the boy didn't even look up from the computer and kept his back to the door. MONEE's superior walked closer. Every couple of steps he would stop, but the boy never looked up at him. When he decided the boy was totally distracted, he confidently walked up behind him and raised his fist! The boy noticed a change in the room's atmosphere. The hair on the back of his neck stood up when he sensed the man's presence but he didn't turn around. Instead he smiled and calmly waited. 'Three...two..' CRASH! Bumblebee lunged at the man and tackled him down on the ground! Sam waited for the sounds of struggle to die down. When things were quiet again, Sam turned around.

"Thanks Bee." Sam said casually. Bumblebee released the man from a choke hold and dropped him face down on the floor. Before he could get away, Sam tossed Bumblebee the pair of handcuffs which he conveniently found in his 'borrowed' security uniform. MONEE's superior, a.k.a Lucius Clawsen according to his ID, never stood a chance against Bumblebee. Before he could even think to dodge or attack, Bumblebee pushed him into a corner and locked his wrists behind an iron table leg. The look on Clawsen's face was priceless! He couldn't believe that a teenager, maybe sixteen or seventeen, brought him down and trapped him with such bruit strength! He yanked at the table leg, but it was nailed into the floor.

"I don't know what you want!" Clawsen yelled at Sam when he saw the other teen rummaging through his wallet. Sam put the ID back in Clawsen's wallet, and set it back down on the desk. "But if you're here for the robots, you're too late! They were destroyed this morning!"

"You hear that Bee? Wheelie's been destroyed. Should we just go home?" Sam joked. Bumblebee pretended to be deep in thought about the question, before shaking his head with a goofy smile. The boys laughed.

**Did you contact Major L.E.N.N.O.X?** Bumblebee signed.

"Yeah. He's on his way. Oh, wait!" Sam turned back to the computer, deleted the history, and logged off the computer so no one could trace the web address back to Autobot HQ. Then he took Lucius Clawsen's wallet again and started walking out the door. Clawsen gasped, but Sam ignored him. It was Bumblebee's stare that stopped Sam in his tracks. "What? Its evidence!" Sam insisted, showing Bumblebee the ID.

**And the cash?**

"Think of it as our paid reward for rescuing Wheelie." Sam said. Bumblebee still starred. Sam groaned. "If the three of us split it, can we keep it?"

**What could _I_ spend money on?**

"Drive in movies, New CDs,...hot wax?" Sam gave a mischievous smile. He already knew what Bumblebee's answer was going to be! Bumblebee considered Sam's offers.

**Thank you for the money. **Bumblebee signed with a straight face. Sam laughed as Bumblebee greedily snatched the wallet from him and counted out his fair share of the money. The two boys took off down the hallway to reunite with Mikaela.


	10. Day Fifteen Part Four

When Bumblebee and Sam reached the place where they had fallen, they were to surprised to see Mikaela waiting there alone. She was sitting on the floor, clutching her lower rib cage area. She was finally feeling the full impact of pain. Sam and Bumblebee rushed over and knelt down beside her.

"What happened? Where's Wheelie?" Sam gasped. Mikaela wouldn't look into his eyes when she talked.

"I...I lost him." Sam's jaw dropped. "I was tired of carrying him! I got shot at, for crying out loud! And he offered to walk anyway. I walked back here and somewhere along the way, he wandered off!" Mikaela explained.

**Its O.K. This wasn't your fault. Where did you see him last? **Bumblebee signed. Mikaela looked at Sam.

"Where did you see him last?" Sam translated. Mikaela looked back down the hallway she came from.

"Two lefts down, we stopped and rested at a flight of stairs. I told him how we found him and everything. Then we started walking again, and a few seconds later I couldn't hear his wheels spinning behind me. I turned around and he was gone."

"And you're sure he 'wandered off'?" Sam asked.

"Well yeah! I mean he's obviously not here, is he Sam?" Mikaela snapped.

"I'm just saying, maybe somebody grabbed him. Why would he willingly leave your side anyway when you're his whole world?"

"All I know is he kept looking back." The trio exchanged worried looks. Sam stood up.

"Well he couldn't have gone too far." He looked up through the hole in the ceiling. Dark clouds were inching closer to the clear patch of sky over their heads. "Bee, can you climb out of that and try to contact Lennox and the others above ground?" Bumblebee transformed into his full sized Autobot form and reached up. He tugged at the edges of the broken floors to test if they would hold his weight. When he decided it was safe to climb, he nodded to Sam and gave a chirp. "Good. Get up there, make the call, and get Mikaela somewhere safe." Mikaela scowled at that last order.

"What? Why-"

"Because you're hurt and we've got to get you help as soon as possible." Sam didn't let her argue. He picked her up and helped her into Bumblebee's hand. Bumblebee placed Mikaela on his shoulder, and leaned her against his head.

_"I'll come back, when you call me." _Bumblebee's radio played. Sam shook his head.

"Don't bother. Wheelie and I will find another way out. You just take care of Mikaela for me, okay?"

_"Peter wait...stay." _Now that was heartbreaking to Sam. He knew Bumblebee would hate to leave him in a situation like this. But they were wasting precious time with Wheelie missing again, and Mikaela's injuries would only slow them down. She had to be taken somewhere safe and be treated.

"Take care of her big guy." Sam sighed. "I'll be back with Wheelie soon." Bumblebee attempted a smile. He understood what was necessary, but that didn't mean he had to love it. He wanted to be by his charge's side. But Mikaela was in need of more help.

_"Y'know we'll have a good time then." _Bumblebee played at a low volume. Sam nodded, turned around and raced off down the hallway. While taking his first left, Sam suddenly remembered the dark sky. 'Please don't let there be a thunderstorm. For Bumblebee's sake, PLEASE don't let there be a thunderstorm!' he prayed.

Not too far away, Wheelie drove top speed through the rooms and halls trying to find Mayday. Last he'd seen of her, she was inches away from drowning in a pool of poison. Where MONEE had taken her, he had no idea. For all he knew, she could have already been killed when he blacked out. Finally Wheelie had to stop himself from wasting anymore energy. He transformed and sat down behind an open door to stay out of sight while he rested. Wheelie tried to clear his processor but he still felt confused, helpless, lost, and lonely. How could he fail Mayday like that? Why was he searching for this Decepticon? They couldn't be friends. So why did he vow to save her? Wheelie remembered the first time he heard her voice. He'd remember that sweet and angelic voice for the rest of his life. 'In fact I could remember it right now.' Wheelie grumbled. He listened to his memories until they began to change into unfamiliar phrases. Then he realized it. It wasn't a memory. It was real!

"Mayday!" Wheelie cried out. In the next room over, a tiny voice he could barely hear answered him.

"In here! Wheelie, I'm in heeerrre!" Wheelie heaved the giant door open and ran inside! "Wheelie!" Mayday exclaimed. He climbed up the table and held her hands through the cage door. "Thank you Wheelie! Thank you! Thank you!" Wheelie let go of Mayday's hands and undid the latch on her cage. She stumbled out and immediately wrapped her arms around him! "I though I'd never see you again!"

"I know. I know. I was scared too." Wheelie thought about his words, and everything he had ever said to Mayday. He suddenly retreated from the hug. "I shouldn't have come back." Mayday felt heartbroken.

"Wheelie?" Mayday's voice quivered. He helped her down from the table, but kept shying away every time they made direct optic contact.

"I'm sorry. I know I promised to save you, but then what? What's gonna happen after that? I'll be labeled as a traitor because I saved you. You'll be killed when the 'Cons find out you spared me. Basically we'd both have the same fate. 'Cause between living a traitor and dying a traitor, I'm not sure which one's worse!" Mayday just stared at him with those sad red optics. "Why did you call for me? Why do you trust me?" Mayday looked into his optics and tilted his chin up towards hers.

"You're the only friend I've ever had. And for a Decepticon drone with gentleness and compassion wired where greed and evil should be, you have no idea how much you mean to me! You have no idea what a big deal it is for me to have just one friend!" She tenderly rubbed the back of his head, and then leaned in for a long kiss. Wheelie seemed hesitant at first, but then eagerly kissed back. Time stood perfectly still for a moment and they were both at peace. When Mayday and Wheelie pulled away, Mayday watched his reaction with an eager smile. "I saw that on a human television series once, and ever since I always wanted to do that!" She beamed. Wheelie started to smile back, but the smile immediately disappeared when a familiar devilish voice sent a chill down his tiny spine. The drones turned around. Lucius Clawsen stood at the doorway.

"Well isn't this sweet?" The evil voice mocked. Wheelie bravely stepped between Clawsen and Mayday. "I see how it is. Kill two birds with one stone." He aimed his gun and fired straight at them! Wheelie however, wasn't scared at all. He pushed Mayday down on the floor and dodged the bullet. It ricocheted off the back wall and hit a barrel of oil to their left. Although the heavy equipment wasn't damaged, the barrels of fuel in the corner all tumbled out, and flooded the floor. Wheelie and Mayday were ankle deep in oil! 'Great! Now all we need is a fire.' Wheelie thought. As if on cue, the lights started to flicker and sparks rained down on them! The floor was instantly lit with flames! Wheelie and Mayday huddled together against the wall. Clawsen saw the opportunity to shoot them again, but didn't take it. He stepped outside the room and locked the door. Suddenly he heard a loud burst of crackling fire! 'They deserve to suffer and burn for all the trouble they and their friends caused me!' He though as he rubbed at the tight handcuffs, broken at the chain, but still latched onto his wrists.

Wheelie and Mayday climbed back on top of the table. But they still weren't safe. MONEE's machines were exploding from the inside out! The flames spread and grew til they were at the tip of Mayday and Wheelie's table! It was suicide to try and jump. Their fragile bodies didn't stand a chance in temperatures that would cause third degree burn on humans. Mayday hugged Wheelie and offlined her optics. Wheelie thought about doing the same. Just offline his optics and wait for the inevitable. But then something caught his attention. The amount of carbon monoxide in the air was low despite the sea of oil and flames. Which meant the smoke was traveling and escaping somewhere else. Wheelie scanned for an opening. What he found was a hole in the ceiling.

"Mayday. Mayday. C'mon look at me." Wheelie coaxed. Mayday onlined her optics. "You have to fly." Wheelie said. He knew that hopeless look in her optics well enough to know what she was going to say next.

"I can't. Remember I can't transform?" Mayday started to cry, but Wheelie was there for her. He kissed her lips again and calmed her. He knew he could make her feel safe as long as they were together.

"Yes you can! You are so much stronger than you think. We can do this together. We'll be out of here soon."

"But I can't fly!"

"You have to try. C'mon Mayday! You can do it. We're so close." Mayday looked up at the ceiling and then down at the crackling fire. She transformed carefully. Every position she folded herself into was agonizing. But when she made it into helicopter mode she felt much better. Mayday began to rise off the table and hover until Wheelie had a hold on her helicopter skids. Wheelie looked down at the flickering flames and let go.

"Wheelie! What are you doing?"

"I can't do this! Just go without me!"

"What are you talking about? You're the one who's talking me into this! How could you give up now? I can't just abandon you here!"

"We'll fall to our deaths if you don't!" Mayday hovered shakily next to him, proving his point. "You can't carry me that far. You'll lose your balance and we'll both die in that!" Wheelie motioned towards the fire. Mayday didn't respond. "Listen Mayday. If you take it slow, you can make it, and you can get out of here. So don't look back for me. Just save yourself." Wheelie thought for a moment. "Do you remember that human femme?" Wheelie was sure she'd know who he was talking about. Mikaela was the only woman either of them had seen at MONEE. "She came to rescue me, and she's like my best friend. If you see her on the way out, can you tell her I said goodbye?"

"A friend of yours huh?" Mayday asked. "You'll have to introduce me when we get out of here." Wheelie facepalmed.

"No! Don't you get it Mayday?" He yelled. "I'm not coming with you!"

"Oh yes you are!" Mayday turned in mid air and pushed him off the table with her tail boom! Wheelie was just about to cuss out the traitor, when she slipped her helicopter skid under his arm for him to grab. Wheelie caught himself onto the skid and hung on for dear life! They narrowly missed nose diving into the fire! When Wheelie realized Mayday's 'encouraging' push wasn't meant to kill him, he relaxed.

"Wait to go Mayday!" Wheelie said sarcastically. "I never doubted you for a second."

They were coming up close to the hole in the ceiling. Mayday was having trouble keeping her balance with her broken rotors, but she kept them going the best she could. Wheelie looked down at the fire. The flickering patterns were mesmerizing. Wheelie looked up, startled by a terrible crashing noise! Mayday's rotors were beating on the ceiling and breaking apart even more! Mayday started to fall! In an instant, she instinctively transformed, leapt out and caught hold of the ceiling, with Wheelie holding onto her leg for dear life! Wheelie screamed. Despite all the things he'd said before, he really wasn't ready to offline. Wheelie looked down again and imagined becoming a torched splat on the floor! Then he thought more deeply about the situation. Was his death supposed to be a metaphor of where he was going after this? 'No way! Not down to the Pit. Sure I've made a mistake or two. But no Autobot deserves an eternity in the captivity of Unicron!' Wheelie's claws slipped an inch. 'I'm still an Autobot, aren't I?' Then Wheelie felt a pull upward. To his relief, Mayday was already half way up on the next floor. She kept climbing until her feet were in and Wheelie could grab the edge. Mayday gave Wheelie her hand and pulled him in. Once they were both on the next floor, Wheelie and Mayday laid down on their backs, totally exhausted. For a moment everything was quiet. Then Mayday burst out laughing.

"We did it!" She cheered. Wheelie started laughing too and in a few seconds they were back up on their feet dancing around and playing like children. Wheelie had never felt so happy to be with someone! He never had much to celebrate for either. They were happiest when they were together. And that's all that mattered. The attic-like room they were in was obviously hosting rodents, and the carbon monoxide bothered the drones' sensors. (But not too bad, since they didn't need to breathe.) Nothing else mattered in their world except each other. After they let out all their excitement, they laid back down on the floor and gazed up at the ceiling like it was an clear starry night.

"Mayday?"

"Hmm?"

"Thanks. For what you did back there. You were really brave."

"Thanks. And you were really brave too for almost getting burned to the Pit." Wheelie winced. He had to remember, she was still a Decepticon and though innocent, not nearly as innocent as she seemed.

"And Mayday?"

"Yeah?"

"What you said about me introducing you to my friend, did you mean it?" Mayday shrugged her shoulders.

"Sure."

"Does that mean you might consider being an Autobot?" Mayday rolled over and turned her back to him. Wheelie nervously kept talking. "If it makes you feel any better, I was once a Decepticon drone too. I know what you're going through."

"Yeah. I can tell." Wheelie wasn't sure what she meant by that.

"I promise you'll be safe with the Autobots. They didn't like me much at first, and some of them still don't. But they'll love you. They'll love a sweet little innocent thing like you. You'll fit right in. So what do you say?" Mayday was quiet for a while. Then she rolled over to show him her new optics.

"Does this answer your question?" She asked with a smile as bright as her blue optics. Wheelie jumped up and punched the air with excitement.

"YES! Oh yes! Thank you! Thank you! Primus. I was sure you were gonna say no! Oh thank you so much! I swear you won't regret this!"

"Okay, okay! Settle down before you hurt yourself!" Mayday joked. "But you know I gotta talk to Optimus Prime about this before its official."

"Aw, don't worry about him. Prime's a great mech, really. And don't be intimidated by his size. He's real easy to talk to. Trust me."

"Well then what are we waiting around here for?" Mayday got up and walked along side Wheelie and held his hand. "Take me home?"

"I'd be glad to, sweetspark." Wheelie grinned. So they walked on, with their blue optics lighting the way.


	11. Day Fifteen Part Five

Sam had to hand it to himself. He really screwed up this time. 'Of all times to get lost!' He thought to himself as he ran past another corridor that he was sure he'd already passed by at least three times. When Sam couldn't find Wheelie around where Mikaela had last seen him, he started wandering and eventually got himself completely lost. Sam determined he'd been searching for about fifteen minutes and still no sign of Wheelie. Sam stopped for a minute to catch his breath. The air had a terrible taste and smell to it though. It reminded Sam of rotten eggs. 'That's not good!' Sam thought. He glanced around for the source of the awful smell. He walked a few yards ahead and around a corner. What he found was smoke seeping out from under the closed door. Sam immediately covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve. Just as he suspected. Carbon monoxide. He held his hand out close to the door, but didn't touch it. The door felt extremely hot, even with Sam's hand at a short distance away from it. In his mind, Sam compared the sensation on his hand to standing too close to a bonfire! Sam turned around and started running farther down the hall with his sleeve still covering his mouth and nose. For his own safety, that would have been the perfect time to start trying to retrace his steps and get out of there as soon as possible. But he still had to find Wheelie. Little did he know, just how close Wheelie was.

Inside the upper air vents, the tapping and click-clacking sounds of crawling wheels and metal claws echoed. Mayday had escaped and hidden in the air vents once before and she thought she had a good idea of where they went. So she lead the way and Wheelie crawled close behind her. They were completely hidden up there. No one could see them, and even if they were caught just by chance while passing by an open vent, it was physically impossible for a human to crawl in after them. In fact it was such a tight space in there that both drones had to be on their hands and knees. Wheelie even hit his head a few times. But he didn't complain. At least they were safe for the moment.

"How much farther Mayday?" Wheelie asked.

"I'm not sure. There's a vent up ahead we can look out and see where we are."

"I don't know what good that's gonna do us. We don't know how we got in, so how do we get out? Its a fragging labyrinth in here."

"Well I don't know about you." Mayday said while moving out of the way so they could both look out the vent. "But I do have one memory of coming in here before stasis shut me down." Wheelie looked through the bars. He saw they were above two intersecting walkways and in the right corner of his view he saw a clear cylinder shaped tube with a metal cart inside it. Wheelie looked at Mayday for an answer. "An elevator." She explained.

"Yeah, but don't you think we'd be taking a risk putting ourselves out in the open like that? Really. Its a _clear _elevator. We might as well ask some human for a ride..." Mayday jumped back and pulled Wheelie away from the bars.

"Shhh! They'll hear us!" She whispered. Wheelie hadn't noticed anyone coming. But sure enough, in a moment he heard five humans running towards their direction. When they stopped, Wheelie and Mayday crawled back to the bars and peaked out. All but one human was wearing the same style of suit. They all wore the same oxygen masks over their faces. Wheelie noted how one or two humans were having difficulty keeping the mask in place on their face. 'Unbelievable. Those humans are risking their lives, running around with faulty breathing masks in a poisonous gas just to kill us. Talk about, 'You know you're putting too much faith in your boss when...'' Wheelie pressed his face to the bars. Once again his curious optics were pointing something out to him. He leaned closer to get a better look at the humans below. Mayday silently tried to motion Wheelie to get back, but Wheelie didn't see her. He kept leaning closer until the vent was under too much pressure. Without warning, the vent unlatched from the wall and Wheelie went flying out! "Wheelie!" Mayday screamed. She tried to grab him but he slipped through her small clawed hands. mayday ducked down and watched in horror.

Wheelie did a double summersault when he hit the floor. The humans immediately charged at him. Wheelie's head was still spinning when he tried to stand up. He looked up from his kneeling position at the giants racing towards him. Wheelie helplessly moaned and bowed his head. "Primus, save me!" Wheelie whimpered. Just then, the humans broke into a mad frenzy! Wheelie was startled by the sudden commotion. He observed the scene in front of him. Four humans were madly battling to the death, not sure who's side they were on, and the one human who dressed slightly different than them all was in the middle. And kicking butt! He took two humans and smashed their heads together! He kicked at one's knees and sent him collapsing on the floor and pushed the other to trip him over the first! He stayed in the center of the brawl and never skipped a beat. He dodged every attack and made every move count! One man tried to punch his head from behind, but he took the man's fist from behind him and used it as leverage to spin around and kick his opponent in the gut! Then he turned again and took two quick steps back and made a grapevine swerving motion at an angle to step quickly to the next man's side. His last opponent was unsure about his strange foot work and didn't have the slightest clue how to predict the next move. The next move was short and sweet. The mystery man gave a mighty kick at his opponent's pelvis! When the man instinctively bent down to rub the bruise, the mysterious man punched him twice in the head and knocked him down on the floor! The force of his head to the floor knocked him out and the mystery man stood victorious!

When he was sure all of the rest of his opponents had run off, he walked over to Wheelie and looked down on him. Wheelie was trembling at the feet of the giant masked figure. The masked human kneeled down closer to Wheelie. He reached out his hand and stroke Wheelie's back and spoke to him. Wheelie flinched at the man's touch, assuming it was meant to hurt him, but he instantly relaxed when he heard his voice.

"You're okay, right?" Sam asked. "They didn't hurt you too bad?" Wheelie couldn't even begin to explain how far from 'okay' and 'not too bad' he was at the moment. Wheelie looked up at Sam with pleading optics.

"Just get me out of here." Sam offered an arm to pick Wheelie up, but Wheelie stepped back. "Look out!" Wheelie shrieked. A gun fire shot off behind Sam! He spun around and stared straight at Lucius Clawsen! Wheelie and Sam didn't know it at the moment, but they were both thinking the exact same thing. 'Slag! He's back!' Sam started to make a b-line in the opposite direction of Clawsen but Wheelie called him back, "No! The elevator!" and started running towards Clawsen. Sam had no choice but to trust Wheelie. So he turned back and sprinted to the elevator. He quickly passed Wheelie up and continued dodging bullets with incredible speed! Sam noticed Wheelie fall behind for a moment, but he didn't notice him calling for Mayday. The minute Sam got the elevator doors open, Wheelie was at his heals going inside. They shut the doors and were going up just in time. Lucius started running at the elevator, not bothering to shoot, because he knew just how indestructible he'd made the elevator doors. Sam watched Clawsen's baffled face expression and couldn't resist waving goodbye to mock him! At that moment, Sam noticed Clawsen wasn't wearing a mask. 'The idiot!' Sam thought. He was about to ask Wheelie just how excited he was to be going home, when he suddenly realized who else was in the elevator.

"Whoa!" Sam exclaimed, completely caught off guard. Mayday just stared at him while Sam tried to figure things out. "Wheelie! How?" Sam took another look at Mayday. "Why?"

"Relax Witwicky, she's a friend." Wheelie said coldly. "Mayday, Sam Witwicky. Sam Witwicky, Mayday." He introduced.

"Thank you for saving us." Mayday said politely. Sam nodded.

"Yeah um, really Sam...thanks." Wheelie added.

"Anytime Wheelie." Sam replied.

"How's Warrior Goddess?" Sam looked up. Metal sheets above them shifted and moved so the elevator could emerge to the surface.

"We'll find out soon."

"And uh, one more question." Sam looked down at Wheelie expectantly. "How in Pit did you beat those guys? Single handedly!"

"When you're genetically mutated by an Allspark shard, it does thing to ya." Sam laughed.

"Well you kicked after burner!" Wheelie congratulated. Wheelie didn't know why, but a strange feeling came over him then. He felt happy, but it was a different kind of happy from what he'd ever felt before. Maybe it was because he'd been deprived of freedom and accustomed to being worthless property for so long. He hugged Mayday, who was happy to see him happy. When the elevator emerged from the Earth, Wheelie knew why he was so happy to be out of there. He was mostly happy because for the first time in fifteen plus days, Wheelie would finally get to see real sunlight again.


	12. Epilogue: Life and Death

_The next day..._

Wheelie slowly onlined his optics. At the first sight of his surroundings, Wheelie's spark sank. He was back on another examining table of some sort. But when he took another look, he caught a glimpse of the Autobot symbol on the wall. 'Yes!' Wheelie thought. He laid his head back and took in the sudden relief. Finally, Wheelie could offline his optics, and _believe _he was safe! Since the Revenge of the Fallen in Egypt, Wheelie had always considered home as where ever his Warrior Goddess was. But even without her in sight, for the first time, Wheelie felt totally at home in the Autobots' base. Wheelie rested in the med bay for a few more minutes until a familiar face came in to greet him. Coincidentally, she was just the human he wanted to see. "Warrior Goddess." Wheelie's voice croaked. He hadn't realized just how exhausted he felt until he tried to speak out loud.

"Hey Wheelie." Mikaela replied when she got up on the berth and sat down next to him. "How'ya feeling?"

"Better. And you?"

"A lot better. Ratchet immediately took me into surgery when we got back here. And I mean _immediately! _Not that I'm complaining or anything. I'd choose Ratchet over any human doctor any day." Mikaela rubbed her casted hand across the bottom of her rib cage. "Still not feeling one hundred percent. But definitely better."

"So when can I see Mayday?" Wheelie asked. Mikaela's smile faded. It was replaced with a worried look. Wheelie didn't understand. "What's wrong?"

"Wheelie, don't you remember?"

"I...guess not. What happened?" Mikaela looked down and sighed. Though he was tired and a bit dizzy, Wheelie sat up and pulled himself up onto her lap. "Tell me." He pleaded.

"I don't know how to tell you this, Wheelie." Mikaela said.

"Just tell me. I can take it." Wheelie waited for her response.

"Do you remember what happened when you first came above ground?" Wheelie thought for a moment.

"There was no sunlight. " He stated. To him, that was a huge let down. He continued to think deeper into his memories. "And we came out of the elevator into pouring down rain. Bumblebee spotted us first. Then everyone else followed. Arcee and Chromia were sent in underground to round up the MONEE humans so they could be brought to justice. And Mayday, Sam, and I were escorted here. Wait where were you?"

"In Ratchet's care. Remember?" Wheelie nodded. "So then what?"

"What do you mean?"

"What else do you remember? What happened next?"

"I don't know."

"C'mon. You've got to remember something else."

"Well..."

_(Flashback:)_

Wheelie and Mayday snuggled close together in Jolt's back seat. They were told by Optimus Prime to stay close to a medic until they returned to base. Wheelie was surprised at how quickly Optimus Prime accepted Mayday. He knew he would of course, but still. Mayday might have had blue optics, but that was only part of the look. Her spark still gave off the energy pulses that identified her as a Decepticon. Yet Optimus Prime needed no exclamation from Wheelie. He put them both in Jolt's care without question. Wheelie wondered how Optimus Prime knew these things. How did he know she could be trusted? Did he really see that her blue optics were an attempt to change? Did he really know of the kindness in her spark? Of course, Wheelie realized the minute he first looked at Mayday, that she wasn't meant to be a Decepticon. Maybe it was just obvious. Either way, Wheelie had a whole new level of respect for Optimus Prime when he approved of Mayday.

Sam also wanted to watch over Wheelie and Mayday with Jolt. So he rode in the passenger seat next to Jolt's driving holoform. Sam and Jolt carried on their conversation and paid little attention to the drones in the back seat. Of course they weren't ignoring them, and kept an ear and an audio receptor open incase Wheelie or Mayday needed anything. Sam told Jolt about Bumblebee's fear of thunder and that he was probably freaking out in the rain, just waiting for lightning to strike.

"That would explain why Bumblebee is speeding so far ahead. You're probably a lot safer with me than you are with Bumblebee as a driver at the moment." Jolt agreed. "I can imagine, he can't wait to get out of this weather." After that, the conversation lost its humorous tone. It was raining cats and dogs. Bumblebee had every reason to suspect a thunder and lightning storm. 'He must be scared to death.' Sam thought.

"I'm gonna text him. See if I can get him to calm down." Sam said.

"Good luck." Jolt's holoform replied. "Optimus Prime has been trying to reason Bumblebee to slow down to a safer speed for the last five minutes. So far, no such luck."

"Well Bumblebee knows me like no one else does. He'll listen to me."

"As far as I know, Bumblebee's known Optimus Prime his whole life. The fact that Bumblebee's disobeying a direct order from his leader is one thing. Disobeying a life long friend and teacher is another. But if you think you and Bumblebee are that special, by all means, text him." Sam pulled out his phone and started dialing.

How ya doin B?

How do you think I'm doing?

I know, i know. Stupid question.

I can't stand it Sam! I have to get out of this now!

B calm down. Ur not in any danger. Its just rain.

You don't get it! Its just rain now, but that doesn't mean thunder and lightning won't strike!

Ur over reacting B. Just slow down & get a hold o yourself ok?

Don't ever tell me I'm over reacting about this Sam! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT I'VE BEEN THROUGH! Bumblebee accelerated faster and farther ahead of the others.

Maybe i don't B. But from what i understand, u are afraid of a memory. Not of thunder itself or any loud noise. ITS ALL IN UR HEAD B! & that's no excuse for drivin like a maniac in the rain! U cant act like this whenevr u hear a loud noise or u think ur gonna hear 1!

What do you want me to do? :'(

Learn 2 cope with it. U shouldn't hav 2 b scared. There was a long pause between the next message. When Bumblebee didn't respond, Sam added. Does Prime know?

He was there. Bumblebee texted. 'He was there.' Sam repeated in his head. That was one more clue he had about Bumblebee's traumatic experience.

Was he there 2 help u?

He saved me. 'Okay, now we're getting somewhere.' Sam thought.

Evr thought maybe he could help u cope with the fear?

Optimus doesn't even know the whole truth of what happened. He knows why, but he doesn't understand why.

U could tell him. I bet he would understand. Sam looked up from his cell phone, happy to see that Bumblebee was slowing down. U feeling any better?

Yeah. Thanks Sam. Thanks so much.

Ur welcome. Sam texted. He looked up from his cell phone to see Bumblebee slowing down to Optimus Prime's speed to drive beside him. Jolt watched as well and internally grinned.

"I don't know how you did it kid, but you must have known what you were doing." Jolt told Sam. Sam just smiled. Meanwhile, Wheelie caught the whole text message conversation, and thought for a moment. 'Maybe living with him wouldn't be so bad after all.' Wheelie was brought out of his thoughts when he felt a tight grip on his arm. It was Mayday. Mayday lazily laid her head on Wheelie's shoulder. Her optics seemed scared. Just when Wheelie was about to ask her what was wrong, he felt her head violently vibrating on his shoulder. Like her processor was malfunctioning and struggling to correct itself. Her whole body began to shake. Wheelie felt the metal over Mayday's spark casing. It was heating up. Wheelie panicked.

"JOLT!" Wheelie yelled. Jolt's holoform looked back at Mayday, shaking in Wheelie's arms. In an instant, Jolt was in the back seat examining Mayday. Sam freaked out when he saw the car driver suddenly jump into the back seat!

"JOLT!" Sam screamed. The young man in the back seat didn't even look up at Sam and continued his work.

"No worries Sam. I can multitask." Jolt said. Sam looked at the car's steering wheel, amazed that the car was still driving. Then he remembered. 'Autobot. Duh!' Sam thought. He turned his attention back to Jolt's holoform. He had Mayday's spark casing open and was examining her energon flow. What he found was little white pieces flowing in her energon veins. Jolt was speechless. He'd never seen anything like them in energon. He did his best to drain them from her tanks, but the real problem was the white pieces blocking the energon flow to her processor. Jolt called Ratchet. What ever this was, it was certainly nothing he knew how to treat. Meanwhile, Mayday held onto Wheelie's hand for dear life.

"Wheelie." Mayday said weakly. "I have to tell you something."

"What is it?"

"I have to tell you goodbye." Mayday's optics moistened.

"No. You can't say goodbye!" Wheelie begged. "You can't. You won't have to! We're gonna get through this together! Remember? I promised you." Now Wheelie looked like he was the one about to cry.

"You...kept your promise. You saved us. The Autobots saved us. That was all you promised. And I'm...thankful...for that." Mayday laid her head back on his lap as her blue optics began to fade in and out.

"Mayday!" Wheelie shook Mayday's shoulders, trying to keep her online.

"No Wheelie." Mayday moaned and tried to push his hand away. "You have to let me go."

"I can't." Wheelie cried. "I love you." Mayday focused her fading optics.

"I love you too." Mayday whispered. "Forever." Mayday's voice made a choking noise, and then went silent. Her blue optics faded back to their original red, and then flashed back to blue before they went completely dark. Jolt noticed and stopped trying to stabilized Mayday. But Wheelie kept shaking Mayday's shoulders.

"Mayday?" Wheelie cried. "Please don't go!"

_(End Flashback:)_

Wheelie shook his memories away. He didn't want to think about what happened next. He looked up at Mikaela and understood her sad expression. 'No.' Wheelie thought. He wanted to deny it, but now that he remembered, Mikaela's eyes told him nothing but the truth. He remembered his previous question. 'So when can I see Mayday?'

"Mayday's dead isn't she?" Wheelie stated. He hardly said it in a questionable tone. He didn't need Mikaela's confirming nod to know the answer. Wheelie fell against Mikaela and bawled his optics out in tears. Mikaela tried to comfort him with her hand over his back, but Wheelie cried even harder. When Ratchet came in to check up on him, he saw Wheelie crying and even screaming in Mikaela's arms. Ratchet came to the conclusion that Mikaela told him the truth, and at this point, as a doctor there was no more Ratchet could do for Wheelie. Ratchet entered and exited unnoticed by the two. "WHY DID SHE HAVE TO DIE?" Wheelie cried out. Mikaela picked him up off her lap and rocked him in her arms.

"Shhh... Wheelie." Mikaela hushed.

"It's not fair." Wheelie whimpered.

"I know. I know." Mikaela tried to lay his head on her shoulder, but Wheelie pushed away from it.

"No. You really don't know." He objected. "Mayday was one of those pure sparks. She was about as perfect as anyone could be. She didn't deserve to die so soon." Wheelie paused before crying out again. "Why did it have to be her?"

"Wheelie, listen to me." She waited for him to give her his full attention. "Mayday offlined, because of a substance MONEE put into her. Jolt said it looked like she drank it, by the way the build up started in her tanks."

"Build up?"

"A build up of tiny white pieces. Ratchet's best guess is that they started out in liquid form and then hardened when they came in contact with her energon. And since they hardened inside her tanks and a Cybertronian is only built to digest liquid, she got no nutritional value out of whatever she was drinking. So she couldn't digest it, and the chemicals it produced in solid form caused the white substance to spread to other parts of her body. This caused fatigue, starvation... It ended when the white pieces blocked off the energon flow to her processor."

"And she just drank something to get those?"

"You had them too. Except they never spread out. The liquid hardened and stayed in your tanks. You were lucky it didn't infect other parts of your body."

"Like Mayday." Wheelie replied bitterly. "Couldn't they have saved her?"

"Wheelie. Almost every moving part of Mayday was being deprived of the proper amount of energon she needed. In her last moments, her processor wasn't getting any. This didn't happen to you because you were immune to the chemical that made the white pieces spread."

"Why was I only immune to it?" Wheelie whined.

"I don't know." Mikaela said. Wheelie couldn't believe that! It was just by chance that Mayday had to die? They could have lived on together. Or even died together. Wheelie knew life was cruel. (Especially as a Decepticon.) When Wheelie switched sides, he didn't expect life and death to get any easier. He honestly didn't think it could get much worse either. But then he met Mayday. Then he experienced friendship, love, sacrifice, heartbreak, and so much more that he couldn't put into words. He never even got to hear her angelic voice sing. Wheelie hit his ultimate low. The despair was unbearable. Wheelie hid his optics away in the embrace of Mikaela's hug. It felt like eternity to them both, but eventually Wheelie was able to cry himself into recharge for the rest of the evening.


	13. Epilogue: Heaven and Earth

"How is he?" Sam asked Mikaela when he saw her walk out of the med bay with Wheelie recharging in her arms.

"He'll physically recover very quickly. He's amazingly in good shape, considering he hasn't drank a drop of real energon in the last fifteen days."

"What about today?"

"I fed him a special antidote of energon with this." Mikaela pulled a small cybertronian gadget that looked like a needle out of her coat pocket. Sam shuddered at the sight of the needle-like thing.

"So how'd that go?"

"It went well actually. You know, Decepticon drones aren't allowed any form of medicine. So once their broken they have to fend for themselves."

"Wheelie told you that?"

"Yeah. Anyway, he was really grateful for that treatment." They started walking. Sam noticed every time they passed a group of NEST's soldiers, they would all stare at Wheelie in Mikaela's arms. Every time they passed the Autobots, they would kneel or bow their heads to respect their brave little comrade. Sam felt sorry Wheelie wasn't awake to see this. They walked outside and greeted Bumblebee. Bumblebee responded with a happy chirp and transformed into vehicle mode. Sam and Mikaela froze in front of Bumblebee. They looked at each other. "So I guess its time for you to go now." Mikaela said. Sam nodded. Mikaela hugged Wheelie one last time before she gently handed him over to Sam. Wheelie noticed the exchange and started to shift in his recharging, but quickly settled down. Sam carried Wheelie over to Bumblebee and was about to lay him down in the back seat, when Mikaela stopped him. "Wait Sam." She called. "You'll need this." She held out the cybertronian needle. Sam took it. "When those white pieces built up in his tanks, Wheelie was immune to the chemical which made the substance spread, right?"

"Right."

"But not entirely. The substance may have been unable to multiply, but the chemicals it contained stayed in Wheelie's tanks for a long time. And the result of this was...well like a stomach virus."

"So he's sick?" Sam asked.

"Only if he drinks energon. His tanks are still sensitive right now. So any energon he tries to drink will make him very sick. That's why you'll need this to inject energon into him, preferably in that wire." She pointed under the armor between his neck and right shoulder. "That's an easy energon vein."

"Just once?"

"No. Once or twice a day for at least five days."

"Okay, but where do I get the energon when this dose is done?"

"NEST will be sending cubes to your door. Remember, he's a drone. So they'll be mini cubes. Don't worry. He doesn't need much. And just for the record, you have me to thank for that."

"Oh?"

"Yep. I set up the classified energon deliveries to you. Not with regular postal services of course. The last thing we'd want to do is get energon shipped to the wrong person. There will be Autobots taking shifts to bring you a few days worth at a time and that way Bumblebee doesn't have to make constant trips back and forth." Sam opened Bumblebee's door and laid Wheelie down and put the cybertronian needle in the front. Sam shook his head and grinned.

"You thought of everything for his recovery, didn't you?"

"Well Ratchet was my mentor some time ago, so what did you expect." They both laugh for a moment. "Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"I was wondering if I could go with you. Just to make sure Wheelie makes it home alright. I just have to know he's okay before I go to sleep tonight, you know?" Sam nodded. "I know it would be asking a lot from Bumblebee to drive you and Wheelie home, drive me home, and then back again..."

_"No problem." _Bumblebee's radio interrupted.

"Really?" Mikaela asked.

_"You know I'd do anything for ya." _Mikaela smiled and then looked at Sam.

"Well Sam?"

All the way to Sam's apartment, Wheelie recharged in Mikaela's lap. He tossed and turned a few times, but for the most part Wheelie rested peacefully the whole way. By this time, Sam and Mikaela had figured out what a heavy sleeper Wheelie was, but they still whispered when they spoke to each other. Just in case Wheelie heard them by chance. Wheelie had endured so much, and at the moment the best reward they could give him was letting him sleep. When they entered the driveway, it was late and dark out. Sam grabbed the cybertronian needle and Mikaela carried Wheelie outside. Sam closed the driver's door a little too loud and startled Wheelie. The noise made Wheelie envision a nightmare and assume the worst. He squirmed and thrashed in Mikaela's arms, remembering when Lucius Clawsen tried to strangle him! Mikaela held him tightly against her shoulder and whispered his name until the thrashing stopped. Wheelie's optics returned to their usual glow. His optics looked dazed and foggy, and he seemed to focus in and out on Mikaela. Mikaela expected this to happen when he'd first wake up. She wondered if he was too confused to understand her.

"You're home Wheelie. You're safe." Wheelie didn't respond. Sam mouthed the words 'I should take him inside.' Mikaela sighed. She carried Wheelie over to Sam. Wheelie tried to cling to Mikaela when Sam took him. Mikaela held Wheelie's hand and tried to comfort him. "I have to go now, okay?" She still wasn't sure if Wheelie could understand her. "Don't go too far from home." Wheelie laid down his head and dimmed his optics as if going back into recharge. Mikaela nodded to Sam and he carried Wheelie inside. He laid Wheelie down on the couch and then went back outside to say goodbye to Mikaela.

"Well now its really over." Sam said. "Thanks for all your help Mikaela. I mean if you ever gave up, we would have never found him in time."

"You're welcome Sam. Thank you for everything you did." Mikaela replied. "And, lets just be glad Wheelie's safe and MONEE is history."

"You can say that again. So are you sure about this?"

"About what?"

"You know, with Wheelie being here?"

"He'll be a lot happier with you than he'll be with me Sam." Mikaela said while opening Bumblebee's door. She was about to leave, when Sam asked the magic question.

"So do you ever think about us?" Mikaela closed the door.

"I do. I remember every detail, which reminds me every day of the reasons why we're still apart."

"You ever think about what it would be like if you forgot about those reasons?" Sam stepped closer.

"No I never thought about that." She lied, putting her arms around him. "Would you mind showing me what that'd be like?" It started with one kiss, that turned into more kisses. And before they knew it, they were slowly waltzing to the song Tomorrow by Chris Young playing on the radio.

_"But tonight I'm gonna give in one last time. Rock you strong in these arms of mine. Forget all the regrets that are bound to follow. We're like fire and gasoline. I'm no good for you. You're no good for me. We only bring each other tears and sorrow. But tonight I'm gonna love you like there's no tomorrow."_

When the song ended Sam and Mikaela looked at each other. At first they didn't know what to think. Did they love each other, or not? They felt something. But it just wasn't the same. And after their good and bad history, they would never be the same. Sam and Mikaela stepped away from each other as if reading each other's minds.

"I hope you take good care of him." Mikaela finally said. Sam opened the car door for her.

"I promise I will." Sam told her. Bumblebee pulled out of the driveway to take Mikaela home. Sam turned around and went inside. He was surprised to see Wheelie standing straight up on the recliner's footstool to watch Mikaela and Bumblebee leave from out the window.

"Y'know, she really dumped you this time. To think you almost had a chance there with the dancing too!" Wheelie teased. "You are just out of luck with her aren't ya?" Sam couldn't resist laughing. 'That was fast.' Sam thought. Already Wheelie was acting like his old self again. Maybe being brought home was all he really needed. That night, Sam laid a cushioned mat on the cedar chest by the window in his room. That way Sam could be close by if Wheelie needed anything. But Wheelie never hollered for Sam. He recharged through the whole night undisturbed. Sam on the other hand, couldn't get to sleep. He kept hearing strange mechanical noises coming from Wheelie. They weren't annoying. Sam was just curious about why in the world was Wheelie making those noises. Hours later, Bumblebee pulled up in the driveway. Sam sent Bumblebee a voicemail with Wheelie's noises on it and then sent a text message.

What's that? Sam asked.

Wheelie is sleep talking. Bumblebee answered.

Sleep talk? What's he sayin? Bumblebee replied with a voicemail recording of a song.

_"I miss you so much. Your light. Your smile. Your way. And everything about us. Though you're gone. You're still here. In my heart. In my tears. Yeah you sure left your mark. And we were just getting started."_

Its Mayday isn't it?

That's right.

Poor guy. U think he will b ok?

_"It wasn't long enough. It wasn't long enough. Together. But it was long enough. Yeah it was long enough. To last forever."_

U think he knows that?

I hope so.

Across the room, Wheelie dreamed he heard a voice calling him. He was standing in darkness with a small light above his head. The light beckoned to him.

"Wheelie. Courageous spark who chose the path of good over deception and evil. The trials you have overcome, have given you extraordinary traits. You are no longer a simple drone. You have earned ours and The Creator's trust and the most precious gift anyone can receive."

"Um...what's that?" Wheelie asked the light. The light suddenly dispersed and lit the darkness! Wheelie gazed up at the six beings looking down on his tiny self. Then his own hands began to glow. He was holding out two red orbs in his hands. Then the orbs grew bigger and created a shape in front of him. The orbs became hands and the red shape became a body. As the body materialized, Wheelie could hear a soft voice singing.

"I'll be your angel, who can not fall.  
>I'm with you.<br>As a guardian, you reach out to,  
>when your back's against the wall.<br>I remember how you said hello.  
>Taught me what I've never known.<br>Love is everything.  
>We can fly without wings.<p>

Angel's here my love.  
>Though we've gone separate ways.<br>Make the best of your days.  
>And in your spark<br>I will stay."

Wheelie nearly offlined when he saw those rotors swing back behind her head.

"Mayday." he whispered.


	14. Copyright

Bumblebee's song and movie quotes belong to their rightful owners.

**Need You Now -by Lady Antabellum  
>Workin' For The Weekend -by Loverboy<br>Hero -by Mariah Carey  
>How To Save A Life -by The Fray <strong>(used twice)**  
>Somewhere -by Evanescence Homeward Bound 2: Lost In San Francisco -Directed by David R Ellis<br>Before Its Too Late -by Goo Goo Dolls  
>Beauty And The Beast -Directed by Gary Trousdale<br>Don't Give Up -by Eagle-Eye Cherry  
>You Belong With Me -by Taylor Swift<strong>  
><strong>Lips Of An Angel -by Hinder<strong>  
><strong>Lilo And Stitch -Directed by Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders<br>Wounded -by Little Big Town  
>E.T -Directed by Steven Spielberg<br>Chronicles of Narnia The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe -Directed by Andrew Adamson  
>The Call -by Regina Spektor<br>Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey -Directed by Duwayne Dunham  
>Cat's In The Cradle -by Harry Chapin<br>No Shirt No Shoes No Problem -by Kenny Chesney**  
><strong>Tomorrow -by Chris Young<strong>  
><strong>Forever -by Rascal Flatts<strong>

Mayday's song is a rewrite of an original song by Tessa Honeybee called The Angel. Under no circumstances will Mayday or her song be republished or used in any other way. Character and song belong to author.


End file.
